Current Evidence in Public Health
Partido, B.B.
Definition of Public Health
Public health is “the science, practice, and art of protecting and improving the health and quality of life of communities 
and populations” (Leviton 2008). It is based on three assumptions:
- The general population that is healthy is of public interest.
- Health can be measured using social and community-level assessments.
- Engaging and improving community-level assessments will improve the general health of the population.
Evidence-Based Public Health
Evidence-based public health is “the process of integrating science-based interventions with community preferences to improve the health of populations” (Kohatsu 2004). Public health professionals must seek answers to complex problems using a variety of resources, which included surveillance data, individual intervention research studies, systematic reviews of multiple intervention research studies, and program evaluations.
There are many challenges to evidence-based public health:
- Decentralized public health system
- Diversity of the public health workforce
- Need for external stakeholder engagement
- Lack of high-quality evidence to support public health decision making
- Policy makers lack formal public health training or any science-related training
- Public engagement using scientific evidence can be ineffective and frustrating
Dental Public Health
Dental public health is defined as “a scientifically based specialty of dentistry and public health that integrates knowledge and and experiences from biological sciences with dental, behavioral, public health, educational and political sciences, and applies tools from management, marketing, and advocacy, to promote health and oral health and provide primary, secondary, and tertiary dental care for individuals and populations” (Ismail 2014).
The responsibility of the public’s oral health is shared between multiple federal, state, and local government agencies. By appointment of by the President, the Surgeon General educates the public, provides scientific based health policies, and advice on critical public health issues in the US.
Healthy People 2020
Healthy People 2020 is a federal public health framework that promotes health and disease prevention. The program provides broad evidence-based national health objectives for the next 10 years. The focus includes: health behaviors, interventions to reduce tooth decay, methods to improve monitoring oral diseases and conditions, and programs that provide preventive services at the community and national levels.
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