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Glossary
opportunities and other positive social forces are in play, the baby boom generation ignites rapid economic growth as it enters the workforce and expands labor supply while falling birth rates simultaneously reduce the number of child dependents. For perhaps 50 years, a bulge in the population of educated, working-age adults drives economic growth and prosperity, and the country reaps the demographic dividend. Diarrheal diseases: severe
diarrhea leads to dehydration and can be life threatening, especially to young children and those with weakened immune systems. Sources of infection include bacteria, viruses and parasites, which are usually ingested with contaminated food or drinking water. These diseases accounted for 50 percent of infant deaths in New York City as of 1882. Today, they remain the fifth leading cause of death globally and the second leading cause of death among children under 5. Diarrheal diseases kill 1.5
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million children every year, 80 percent of them under the age of 2. See also, Oral rehydration therapy. Environment: used in public health to encompass all of the extrinsic factors affecting health including not just environmental pollution but also diet, exercise, smoking, drugs, and social exposures such as racism or violence.
Evidence-based policy/evidence-based decision-making: applies the
same basic principle used to determine treatments in medical practice—that objectively verifiable information achieved through rigorous scientific testing is required to determine effective courses of action—in the realm of public policy generally and health policy in particular.
Epidemiology: the study of the
distribution and determinants of disease in a population. Epidemiologists identify risk factors for diseases and strategies to prevent them by studying data from large populations. Epidemic: when a disease spreads widely and often rapidly from person to person, affecting large groups. An epidemic becomes a pandemic when it has spread over a significant geographical area, usually crossing into multiple countries as in the case of a global flu pandemic.
I N T R O D U C T I O N T O P U B L I C H E A LT H
Food pyramid: food pyramids have been used for decades to diagram government recommendations for food intake. The current U.S. government version is known as “My Pyramid.” HSPH faculty (Walter Willett and others) have developed an alternative called the Healthy Eating Pyramid. The foundation of the Healthy Eating Pyramid is daily exercise and weight control. Other layers emphasize eating whole grains and vegetables, while red meat, refined grains, sugary drinks, and salt are least encouraged.