Introduction


Public health is a multi-disciplinary field that aims to 1) prevent disease and death, 2) promote a better quality of life, and 3) create environmental conditions in which people can be healthy by intervening at the institutional, community, and societal level. 

Whether public health practitioners can achieve this mission depends upon their ability to accurately identify and define public health problems, assess the fundamental causes of these problems, determine populations most at-risk, develop and implement theory- and evidence-based interventions, and evaluate and refine those interventions to ensure that they are achieving their desired outcomes without unwanted negative consequences.

To be effective in these endeavors, public health practitioners must know how to apply the basic principles, theories, research findings, and methods of the social and behavioral sciences to inform their efforts.   A thorough understanding of theories used in public health, which are mainly derived from the social and behavioral sciences, allow practitioners to:

Note: This module has been translated into Estonian by Marie Stefanova. The translation can be accessed at

https://www.bildeleekspert.dk/blog/2018/08/06/sotsiaalsete-normide-teooria/

 

Learning Objectives


After successfully reviewing these modules, students will be able to: