Dr. Lory Laing and Dr. Jane Springett of the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, March 20, 2013.

1. Beyond an apple a day
Why public health matters to you.
Lory Laing Jane Springett
Professor and Interim Dean, Professor and Director,
School of Public Health Centre for Health Promotion Studies
School of Public Health
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

2. What is health and how do we
protect and promote health, and
how do we prevent illness and
injury in Alberta?

3. What is health?
The conditions in which people are born, grow,
live, work and age have a profound impact on
health and are shaped by the distribution of
money, power, and resources at the global,
national and local levels. These social
determinants of health shape health inequities,
the unfair and avoidable differences in health
status seen between and within countries.
World Health Organization, 2012

4. Health as a social concept
“Health is created and lived by people within the
settings of their everyday life where they learn,
work, play and love.”
Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion, 1986

5. The day to day life of a family

6. Aboriginal/Multicultural Canada

7. Grocery shopping

9. Average shelf-space of fruits and
vegetables vs. junk food within 1km

10. These 10 corporations control almost
everything you buy
J Benach

11. Driving to work/school

12. On the bus

13. Walking to school

15. Sensitive periods in early brain
development

17. Kids at play

18. Inner-city playground

20. Circle of well-being

21. At school

22. Lunch at school

23. Comprehensive School Health

24. Comprehensive School Health

25. Work

26. Stress

27. Seniors and supportive environments

29. Understanding disparities and
differentials in health
The mounting scientific evidence all points to better
health status for those who earn more, know more, or
have more power.
In Canada, men in the wealthiest fifth of the population
can expect to live on average over 6 years longer than
men in the poorest fifth.
They can expect to be free of disability for 14 years
longer. For women, the gaps are 3 and 8 years
respectively.

30. Disparities: what are they?
The social gradient in health runs right across
society, the effects are not confined to the poor.
Disparities are persistent over time and over
geography.
The concept that we all live or die with the choices
we make must be extended to communities.

31. Inequities: differences or
disparities that are “unjust.”
Inequality is not being equal or the same.
Inequity (health inequity) differences in health
that are avoidable, unfair, and thus inequitable.

32. From UNDP Human Development Report
Source: Population Health Forum, Health Olympics
Monitor (http://depts.washington.edu/eqhlth/)

33. Correlation between the Index of “Health and social
problems” with “income inequality” (rich countries)

36. How much do you think the general public appreciates the
importance of the various determinants of health?
Drawing by a 10 year old boy in an inner
city school.

37. Drawing by a 10 year old girl in an urban school

38. Tips for better health:
1. Don't smoke. If you can, stop. If you can't, 1. Don’t be poor. If you can, stop. If you
cut down. can’t, try not to be poor for long.
2. Follow a balanced diet with plenty of fruit 2. Don’t have poor parents.
and vegetables. 3. Own a car.
4. Don’t work in a stressful, low paid
3. Keep physically active.
manual job.
4. Manage stress by, for example, talking 5. Don’t live in damp, low quality housing.
things through and making time to relax. 6. Be able to afford to go on foreign
5. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. holiday and sunbathe.
6. Cover up in the sun, and protect children 7. Practice not losing your job and don’t
from sunburn. become unemployed.
7. Practise safer sex. 8. Take up all benefits you are entitled to,
if you are unemployed, retired or sick or
8. Take up cancer screening opportunities.
disabled.
9. Be safe on the roads: follow the Highway 9. Don’t live next to a busy major road or
Code. near a polluting factory.
10. Learn the First Aid ABC - airways, 10. Learn how to fill in the complex housing
breathing, circulation. benefit/asylum application forms before
you become homeless and destitute.

39. Health is everybody’s business
• We are all health workers now:
• the people who raise money for a playground
• the urban planner
• teachers
• business leaders
• staff and volunteers working in poverty reduction,
homelessness immigration

40. Uplifting the whole people
“The modern state university has sprung from a
demand on the part of the people
themselves…The people demand knowledge
shall not be the concern of scholars alone. The
uplifting of the whole people shall be its final goal.
This should never be forgotten.”
Henry Marshall Tory, Founding President,
University of Alberta, 1908

41. publichealth.ualberta.ca
The School of Public Health at the University of Alberta is
accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.