Classics connotation of public health: a content analysis-based literature study

  Objective  To explore classical connotation of public health concept at home and abroad for developing a contemporary definition of public health.

  Methods  Through online searching on websites such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Institute of Science Information (ISI) Web of Science and manual retrieval, we retrieved relevant studies in journals, books and government/professional institution documents published up to the end of January 2018 and then concluded 28 national and 31 international definitions of public health. Retest reliability was used to evaluate the reliability of the definitions; content analysis was adopted to analyze classical connotations of the definitions and an impact indicator was established to assess the significance of the classical connotations.

  Results  Through the analysis on the 59 definitions, 257 connotations were initially generalized and 12 domains of classical connotations were derived with stepwise classifying and clustering analysis. The retest reliability of the classical connotations ranged 0.800 – 1.000, indicating that the analytical results were reliable and stable. The top five classical connotations with great significance were ensuring and promoting public health, organizing the society to work together, preventing and controlling various diseases and disabilities, being a field of science and art, and exerting interventions at population.

  Conclusion  Ensuring and promoting the health of general population is the key connotation for the definition of public health and to develop a contemporary definition of public health is important for guiding theoretical research and practice of public health in all societies.