What Is Population Health? (+ Why It Matters)

Key takeaways

Population health is the interdisciplinary approach to achieving positive health outcomes within a community, such as a nation, ethnic group, or city.

• Population health aims to connect practice to policy to improve health outcomes and their distribution across a community.

• Factors that affect health outcomes can include genetics, social environment (education, income, employment, culture), physical or natural environment (clean air and water, urban infrastructure and design), health care systems, and individual behavior.

• You can pursue a career as a population health manager, focusing on improving a group’s health outcomes by collecting, managing, and deeply analyzing data related to individuals’ age, income, location, gender, and medical condition.

Learn about population health, why it matters, and how it’s different from public health. To learn more about health programming, consider enrolling in the Foundations of Global Health Specialization. In as little as two months, you’ll have the opportunity to build skills related to advocacy, health equity, health systems, and more. Upon completion, you’ll have earned a career certificate for your resume.

What is population health?

Population health is the interdisciplinary approach to achieving positive health outcomes within a community. A community can refer to a nation, an ethnic group, a city, or something more specific, such as a group of disabled students.

Improving a population's health requires connecting practice to policy and improving health outcomes and their distribution for a particular community of individuals through non-traditional partnerships across sectors as wide-ranging as public health, academia, corporations, and government. 

Health researchers propose that the definition of population health be "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group," and that policies and interventions are what link the outcomes and patterns of health determinants [1]. Health determinants (or factors) that affect these outcomes can include genetics, social environment (education, income, employment, culture), physical or natural environment (clean air and water, urban infrastructure and design), health care systems, and individual behavior [1]. 

Experts in the field use data to understand how these factors impact health and health distribution, identifying specific needs so that the communities can address these concerns and ultimately improve their health outcomes. 

Why is population health important?

Population health is important because addressing entire populations at a macro level helps identify the structural inequities for law and policymakers so that the efficiency and quality of care can be improved. Segmenting the population into groups with evolving needs streamlines and improves the overall distribution of health outcomes. 

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for pivoting to telemedicine and more integrated systems of digital health care [2]. New software systems were put in place, and data on communities could be used to innovate clunky processes that would support both in-person and remote health care. Population health can lead to a more resilient health care system, where policies actually contribute to positive health outcomes for a greater number of people within a community.

For example, value-based care has become one of the field’s most important contributions to health care. Health providers can work together to coordinate treatments so they can administer the highest-quality services. It also means the population can pay for it: value-based care allows insurance reimbursements to emphasize the quality of care rather than quantity. Newer payment plans, such as shared savings programs and integrated care, help patients get the specific care they need without breaking the bank.

Learn more about value-based care

With the course Value-Based Care: Population Health from the University of Houston, you’ll have the opportunity to learn about four critical areas of population health management: addressing behavioral and social determinants of health, the prevalence of chronic disease, attributes of an aging population, and key barriers to access to health care.

What is the difference between population health and public health?

Population health is often confused with public health, which traditionally focuses on how national or regional governments address the prevention and spread of harmful epidemics and environmental hazards. 

While population health and public health both advance the well-being and health of communities, population health tends to focus on a smaller, specific group within it, and there are subtle differences in their approaches.

• Population health deals with the health and health outcomes of a particular group of individuals, such as retired veterans. It focuses on how individuals within specific groups are treated and how those health outcomes can improve in quality and efficacy. Researchers might evaluate how earning a lower income, attending private school, or having access to free insurance can affect that group’s health outcomes.

• Public health addresses more issues than population health. Public health experts and policymakers focus on promoting health and wellness across entire nations and groups of communities. Under public health, researchers and experts study and promote policies, health education, research (for disease prevention or environmental hazards), and behavioral changes (such as diet and hygiene).

Careers in population health

Within population health, you can pursue a career in population health management. A population health manager focuses on improving a group’s health outcomes by monitoring individuals within that group based on their age, income, location, gender, and medical condition. Being able to collect, manage, and deeply analyze data is critical to population health management.

Because public health is a broad subject that covers population health and more, earning a master’s in public health (MPH) can be your gateway to a research-based or policymaking role. It is a reputable degree that can help you earn more money and advance in your career while making a positive impact in the world.

Read more: 7 Public Health Careers Worth Exploring

Reliable guidance when you need it

Explore career paths, assess your skills, and connect with resume guidance while browsing our Career Resources Hub. Or if you want to learn more about health care trends, check out these free resources:

• Read our Career Chat issue: AI in Health Care: Uses, Benefits, and Concerns

• Watch on YouTube: Careers in AI Healthcare: The Trainer Role Explained

• Hear from industry leaders: 7 Questions with a Data Analytics Professor

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