Limitation of public health (public health) according to Professor Winslow (1920) from Yale University is the science and art of preventing disease, prolong life, and improve physical and mental health, and efficiency, through community organizing efforts to improve sanitation and improvement of the environment, eradication of communicable diseases, personal hygiene education, organizing medical care and treatment for early diagnosis and treatment, and the development of social engineering to ensure every person a decent living needs are met in maintaining good health.
Of the restrictions implied that public health is a combination of theory (science) and practice (art) which aims to prevent disease, prolong life and improve the health of the population (community). These objectives are certainly interrelated and have a broad understanding. To achieve these three principal objectives, Winslow proposed way or considered the most effective approach is through the efforts of community organizing.
Public health associated with health problems in the community. Therefore, the nature of public health science with more emphasis on prevention (prevention) and increase (promotion). Public health sciences dealing with health problems in the community, where people have a very broad aspect, the handling should be multisectoral and multidisciplinary. Medical profession alone is not enough to deal with public health issues.
Handling of public health is not sufficient to provide therapeutic patients, because if after they recover will return to the community. Therefore, treatment of health disorders are not only addressed to the sufferer alone, but the whole society. Public health problem not only concerns the health aspect, but related aspects of the other, such as economic, socio-cultural, educational, demographic, and so on.
Therefore, handling or repair of public health degree as a therapy not only directed to health problems, but also towards other areas. For example, nutritional diseases CTF (lack of calories and protein) in children under five, is not enough to merely supplementary feeding alone (PMT), but also do family economic improvement, increased knowledge, and so on.
The object of public health science studies, especially from the aspect of health, or even become a public health patient is public. Society as an object of application of health science have social, economic, and cultural complex.
The purpose of public health is defined as the application integration between medicine, sanitation, and social sciences in the prevention of disease in the community. Organizing the community in order to achieve public health goals is essentially collecting society’s potential or existing resources in the community itself to the efforts of preventive, curative, promotive and rehabilitative health of their own. Public health issues include:
1. Environmental sanitation.
2. Elimination of disease
3. Health education (hygiene)
4. Management (organization) health care and
5. Development of social engineering in the context of the maintenance of public health.