What Do You Mean by Public Health?
Understanding the True Meaning of Public Health
Every time you buckle your seatbelt, drink fluoridated tap water, or walk past a "no smoking" sign, you're experiencing public health in action. Yet if someone asked you to define public health, you might struggle to find the words.
Most people think of hospitals, vaccines, or maybe a campaign reminding you to wash your hands. But public health goes far deeper than medical care. It's the organized effort of communities, organizations, and policymakers to protect and improve the health of entire populations — not just individuals.
In short: public health is about prevention, education, and community well-being. It's about keeping people healthy before they ever need a doctor. It's the reason your child's school requires immunizations, why restaurants display health inspection scores, and why your neighborhood has smoke-free parks. Public health happens in the background of everyday life, quietly protecting the health of millions.
Public Health vs. Healthcare: A Critical Distinction
Healthcare focuses on treating illness. Public health focuses on preventing it.
Think of it this way: A doctor treats a patient with asthma, prescribing inhalers and monitoring symptoms. A public-health initiative works to reduce air pollution, improve housing conditions, and eliminate mold exposure so fewer people develop asthma in the first place.
A cardiologist performs life-saving heart surgery. A public-health program creates bike lanes, promotes smoking cessation, and ensures access to affordable fruits and vegetables so fewer people need that surgery.
That's why public health operates at a population level — it looks at the systems, environments, and behaviors that shape health outcomes for entire communities. It asks not just "How do we treat this disease?" but "Why are so many people getting sick in the first place, and what can we change?"
The Core Functions of Public Health
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines three core functions that guide all public health work:
1. Assessment – Collecting and analyzing data to understand health problems and their root causes. This includes tracking disease rates, identifying health disparities, monitoring environmental hazards, and surveying community health needs. Without assessment, public health professionals are working blind.
2. Policy Development – Designing laws, programs, and strategies that address identified problems. This might mean advocating for smoke-free workplace policies, developing school nutrition standards, creating safe needle exchange programs, or establishing mental health crisis response teams.
3. Assurance – Ensuring communities have access to the resources, services, and infrastructure that promote health. This includes everything from maintaining clean water systems to licensing healthcare providers to coordinating emergency response during disease outbreaks.
These core functions are supported by 10 Essential Public Health Services that range from health education and community partnerships to emergency preparedness and research—all working together to create the conditions in which people can be healthy.
Why Public Health Is Everyone's Business
Public health isn't confined to government agencies or health departments. It's practiced everywhere people make choices that impact their well-being—in schools, grocery stores, community centers, clinics, pharmacies, and yes, even at the gas pump.
Consider these everyday moments:
A teenager sees a vaping prevention message at their high school and decides not to try that new disposable vape their friend offered
A parent picks up nutrition education materials at their pediatrician's office and starts packing healthier school lunches
A grocery shopper encounters diabetes prevention information near the beverage aisle and reaches for sparkling water instead of regular soda
A driver at a gas station sees a mental health crisis line number and saves it for a friend who's been struggling
These aren't hypothetical scenarios—they're real examples of how public health education, delivered in the right place at the right moment, changes lives.
That's where PlaceBased Media steps in.
Our mission is to deliver public-health education directly where people are — in the trusted local venues where they already spend time. Whether it's a mental-health awareness message in a community clinic, a teen substance use prevention campaign in high schools, nutrition education in c-stores, or maternal health information in pharmacies, we help health organizations reach audiences at the point of influence—where information becomes action.
Examples of Public Health in Action: Small Changes, Massive Impact
Public health's greatest successes often seem simple in hindsight, but they've fundamentally transformed human health and longevity. Here are just a few examples:
Clean Water & Sanitation: The addition of chlorine to water supplies and the development of modern sewage systems have saved more lives than perhaps any other public health intervention. Waterborne diseases that once killed millions now rarely occur in communities with proper water treatment.
Tobacco Prevention: Comprehensive public-health education, advertising restrictions, smoke-free policies, and cessation support reduced adult smoking rates in the U.S. from 42% in 1965 to less than 12% today. This translates to millions of lives saved from lung cancer, heart disease, and other tobacco-related illnesses.
Traffic Safety: Seat belt laws, drunk-driving campaigns, improved road design, and vehicle safety standards have dramatically lowered traffic fatalities despite more cars on the road. What was once accepted as inevitable is now largely preventable.
Mental Health Awareness: The recent 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline campaign has made it easier for people to seek help during mental health emergencies. By normalizing mental health care and simplifying access, public health initiatives are saving lives while reducing stigma.
Lead Poisoning Prevention: After recognizing lead's devastating effects on child development, public health efforts eliminated lead from paint and gasoline, tested homes and water supplies, and provided interventions for exposed children. Blood lead levels in U.S. children have dropped by over 90% since the 1970s.
Each of these successes required the same elements: identifying a problem, educating the public, changing policies and environments, and maintaining long-term commitment to prevention. This is public health at work.
How Place-Based Media Amplifies Public Health
Information saves lives. But only if it reaches people who need it, when they need it, in places where they trust it.
The World Health Organization identifies risk communication and community engagement as one of the pillars of effective public-health response. Yet in many communities—particularly those facing health disparities—access to clear, trusted, actionable health information remains frustratingly limited.
Digital channels reach some audiences effectively, but they miss others entirely. Communities with limited internet access, older adults less comfortable with digital media, people managing multiple jobs without time for online research, and individuals experiencing homelessness all need health information through different channels.
That's why out-of-home (OOH) and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) media are emerging as vital public-health tools. By delivering education in everyday settings — from pharmacies to schools to grocery stores to community centers — organizations can engage diverse audiences in ways that feel natural, credible, and immediately relevant.
A recent Edison Research study found that 60% of people found health messages more believable when seen in a doctor's office compared to TV advertising. This highlights a crucial insight: context and trust amplify message impact.
But place-based media offers even more advantages for public health communication:
Reaching People at Decision Points: A diabetes prevention message in a convenience store reaches someone at the exact moment they're deciding between regular soda and a healthier alternative. Sexual health information in a college health center reaches students when they're already thinking about their wellbeing. This contextual relevance makes messages more memorable and actionable.
Extended Dwell Time Enables Learning: Unlike a billboard glimpsed for three seconds, place-based media reaches people in environments where they spend time—waiting rooms, student lounges, break rooms. This extended exposure allows for more complex health information, QR codes linking to resources, and messages that actually educate rather than just create awareness.
Building Trust Through Venue Association: Health messages displayed in doctors' offices, pharmacies, schools, and community health centers benefit from the credibility of those trusted institutions. The venue itself endorses the message, making skeptical audiences more receptive.
Addressing Health Equity: Place-based networks can be strategically deployed in underserved communities where health disparities are greatest and digital access is most limited. By meeting people where they are—literally—public health organizations can reach populations that other channels miss.
Culturally Relevant Messaging: Place-based campaigns can be localized and culturally tailored to specific communities, displaying Spanish-language health information in predominantly Latino neighborhoods, highlighting resources for LGBTQ+ youth in appropriate venues, or addressing community-specific health concerns.
Public Health and Health Equity: Meeting Communities Where They Are
One of public health's core commitments is ensuring everyone has the opportunity to be healthy, regardless of race, income, zip code, or background. Yet health disparities persist—some communities face higher rates of chronic disease, shorter life expectancies, and greater barriers to healthcare access.
Place-based media plays a unique role in advancing health equity. Traditional media channels often miss the communities facing the greatest health challenges. A family without reliable internet can't access online health resources. A neighborhood without primary care providers has limited touchpoints for health education. Communities experiencing poverty may lack the time, resources, or trust to engage with traditional healthcare systems.
But place-based networks can reach these communities by placing health information in the spaces where people already are: corner stores, laundromats, public libraries, community centers, public housing common areas, and public transportation hubs. By bringing health education directly into these neighborhoods—in multiple languages, addressing relevant local health concerns, connecting people to accessible resources—place-based media helps close the information gap that contributes to health disparities.
This approach recognizes a fundamental public health principle: health happens in communities, not just in clinics. The conditions that shape health—access to nutritious food, safe places to exercise, clean air and water, supportive social connections, economic opportunity—all exist at the community level. Public health messaging must reach people in those communities, not just hope they'll seek it out elsewhere.
The Future of Public Health Communication
The next era of public health will rely on smarter, more community-integrated communication strategies. It's not enough to post a message online and hope it finds its audience; people need to encounter education in the physical spaces where they live and make choices.
Data-driven placement will allow public health organizations to identify neighborhoods with the highest need and deploy targeted messaging addressing specific local health concerns—opioid prevention resources where overdose rates are highest, diabetes management information in communities with elevated prevalence, mental health resources near populations experiencing crisis.
Interactive and experiential health education will transform passive viewing into active engagement. Touch screens allowing people to find nearby health services, QR codes connecting to telehealth resources, text-to-access crisis lines, and interactive health assessments turn place-based displays into gateways for immediate help.
Integration across channels will create cohesive health campaigns where place-based touchpoints work alongside digital, broadcast, and community outreach to reinforce messages and provide multiple pathways to resources. Someone might first encounter information about smoking cessation on a pharmacy screen, then see a social media reminder, then receive support through a text-based coaching program—each touchpoint reinforcing the last.
Real-time health communication will enable public health messages to adapt based on current conditions—heat warnings during extreme weather, air quality alerts during wildfire season, disease prevention information during outbreaks, or mental health resources during community crises.
That's why PlaceBased Media is building networks that combine the reach of mass media with the authenticity of local connection. By partnering with public-health agencies, nonprofits, healthcare systems, and mission-driven organizations, we're helping shape healthier communities — one screen, one poster, one neighborhood at a time.
We're not just placing ads. We're creating the infrastructure for community health education, ensuring that vital information reaches people where they can act on it, and building long-term partnerships that make health resources accessible to everyone.
Final Thoughts
So, what do we mean by public health?
It's not just medicine — it's prevention, education, and community empowerment. It's the reason you can drink tap water without fear, why your children are protected from once-deadly diseases, and why you have access to resources that help you make healthier choices.
Public health is meeting people where they are—physically and mentally—and giving them the tools, information, and support to live healthier, happier lives.
And that's what PlaceBased Media does every day: turning places into platforms for positive change, bringing health education to the communities that need it most, and building healthier futures one message, one venue, one neighborhood at a time.
Ready to bring public health education to your community? Whether you're a health department looking to reach underserved populations, a nonprofit seeking to amplify your prevention message, or a healthcare system committed to community wellness, PlaceBased can help you reach people where they live, learn, work, and gather. Let's talk about where your message needs to be.
PlaceBased is a Minneapolis-based out-of-home (OOH) and digital-out-of-home (DOOH) media company specializing in community-level networks that promote public health, education, and social-impact campaigns. We believe health happens in communities, and the most effective health education reaches people in the trusted spaces where they already spend time. Learn more at www.placebased.media.
