Main description:

The greatest public health victories of the last century - public sanitation, vehicle safety measures, limits on smoking and tobacco use - have all been facilitated by public policies. While policy is an unparalleled tool for effecting change in public health, most professionals are unprepared to plan, apply, or study policy in a consequential way.

Prevention, Policy, and Public Health provides a basic foundation for students, professionals, and researchers to be more effective in the policy arena. It offers information on the dynamics of the policymaking process, theoretical frameworks, analysis, and policy applications. It also offers tools for advocacy and communication, two integral aspects of shaping policies for public health.

Organized around the leading risk factors for premature death and supplemented with illustrative case study examples, this book will help professionals and researchers understand the dimensions of policy, which can in turn inform the conduct of research and evaluation. These skills, combined with an understanding of opportunities and limitations within governments, can be highly applicable to designing effective policies and programs.

With current pressures to implement broad and sustainable public health improvements, policies are more important than ever for anyone in the study and practice of public health. This book can be considered a primer to truly understanding the connection between prevention, policy, and public health.

Contents:

Part One: Fundamental Policy Concepts

1. Policy and Prevention
Amy A. Eyler and Ross C. Brownson

2. Policy Explained
Shelley Golden and Sarah Moreland-Russell

3. Policy Theory
Sarah Moreland-Russell and Marissa Zwald

4. Policy Analysis
Jamie F. Chriqui and Sabrina K. Young

5. Social Determinants
Jason Q. Purnell, Sarah Simon, Emily B. Zimmerman, Gabriela J. Camberos, and Robert Fields

Part Two: Policy Illustrations for Specific Public Health Issues

6. Tobacco
Sarah Moreland-Russell and Shelley Golden

7. Obesity and Food Policy
Jamie F. Chriqui and Christina N. Sansone

8. Physical Activity
Amy A. Eyler and Marissa Zwald

9. Alcohol Policy
Richard A. Grucza and Andrew D. Plunk

10. Infectious Disease
William G. Powderly

11. Injury Prevention
David A. Sleet and Frederic E. Shaw

12. Violence
Melissa Jonson-Reid, Janet L. Lauritsen, Tonya Edmond, and F. David Schneider

13. Sexual Behavior
Bradley Stoner

14. Illicit Drug Use
Duane C. McBride, Yvonne M. Terry-McElrath, and Curtis W. VanderWaal=

Part Three: Next Steps in Public Health through Policy

15. Tracking and Surveillance
Jamie F. Chriqui and Amy Eyler

16. Communication
Harry T. Kwon and David E. Nelson

17. Advocacy
Roberta R. Friedman and Marlene B. Schwartz

18. Next Steps
Ross C. Brownson and Amy A. Eyler

Index