During National Public Health Week, April 4 - 10, we honor faculty, alumni, students, staff, community partners, and professionals that are dedicated to making communities safer, stronger, and healthier. Together we strive to create the healthiest nation.
We invite you to check out highlights of some of the work being accomplished by Spartans working in public health.
Public Health is Where You Are
Public health encompasses anything that maintains or improves mental or physical health among groups of people. The discipline and practice of public health can be an effective means of reducing the health care burden for a population - by focusing on prevention rather than treatment alone.
Public health often seeks to ensure optimal health and well-being for all through interventions that reduce health inequities and address the upstream determinants of health – or the conditions in which we live, learn, work, and play. These conditions include the physical environment, housing, transportation, employment, access to healthy food, social support, income, and education.
We’re only as healthy as the world around us and the communities in which we live.
In Michigan, the leading causes of death include heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, accidents, and strokes. Public health practitioners work in these areas to improve quality life outcomes and save lives.
The reasons people live longer and healthier lives today are primarily due to advances in public health. Since 1990, the average life span in the United States has increased by more than 30 years. Public health programs have prevented the death of 2 billion children under five years of age each year.
Explore Highlights from MSU Public Health Work:
