Public Health Education Using Pop Culture and Media

GENERAL PUBLIC HEALTH KNOWLEDGE-ACTION NEEDED Public health emphasizes disease prevention, health promotion, and treatment at the population level. General knowledge about public health is lacking, despite the international growth of public health programs. The most recent public health opinion poll identified in the United States (US) was completed over 20 years ago in 1996 by Louis Harris and Associates. The random digit-dialing project revealed that a majority of US respondents viewed public health services, such as preventing the spread of infectious diseases and implementing healthy lifestyle programs, as very important (1). Still, the definition of public health remains ambiguous or unknown (1–3). When over 1000 adults were asked to define public health, 36% said it is the well-being of the public, 12% did not know, 11% said it is a government-provided health care system, and 9% said it was a governmentprovided system for the needy and elderly (3). Less than 4% of respondents identified public health with disease prevention or health promotion (3). Though this poll took place some time ago, if the trend continues, most Americans are likely still unable to define public health. This may not all be due to low-public health knowledge, but perhaps some due to low-health literacy. According to the US National Adult Literacy Survey, nearly half of the US adult population has inadequate reading or computing knowledge, and estimates show one-third of adults need assistance with interpreting health terminology (4, 5).