Public health as a socio-cultural phenomenon

The article presents the results of analyzing the concept of public health as a socio-cultural phenomenon. A critical analysis of existing approaches to defining public health is presented. It is substantiated that public health is not a constant sum of the individual health of members of a certain social community. According to the integral approach proposed by the authors, public health is a certain state of social systems that ensure the reproduction of physical life and individual health of the population, or the mass reproduction of physical life and individual health of a certain society, state, or large social group. It is shown that the systems whose state constitutes the content of the concept of public health include seven social systems: system of reproduction of the physical life of the population, system of demographic reproduction, public pedagogical system, system of reproduction of public consciousness, social economic system, political and legal systems of society, health care system. It is substantiated that public health also includes the health care system. The differences and connections between the concepts of “public health” and “health care” are considered. The relationship between public health and medical policy is explored.