Population Health

Population health has been defined as “the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group.” It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire population. One major step in achieving this aim is to reduce health inequities among population groups. Population health seeks to step beyond the individual-level focus of mainstream medicine and to complement the organized efforts of public health by addressing a broader range of factors that impact health on a population-level, such as environment, social structure, resource distribution, etc. One important theme in population health is the importance of social determinants of health and the relatively minor impact that medicine and healthcare have on improving health overall.

From a population health perspective, health has been defined not simply as a state free from disease but as "the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life's challenges and changes".