TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Genetic Determinants of Disease and Genetics in Public Health A1 - Lorey, Fred A2 - Wallace, Robert B. PY - 2017 T2 - Maxcy-Rosenau-Last Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 15e AB - Social policies, public health, and medicine, in that general descending order of importance, have improved human well-being and longevity in the twentieth century. Yet disease continues, in the form of sick populations and sick individuals,1 and unhealthy longevity is a macroeconomic problem.2 Naturally, there has been a response—one composed of social policies, public health, and medicine. In Canada, a major milestone in this response was the government document A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians,3 which outlined the Health Field Concept. Reasonable, thoughtful, and provocative, this document espoused a four-pronged attack on disease, and it welded ideas on lifestyle, environment, health care organization, and human biology into an approach to address disease more effectively. Considerable attention has been paid to the first three but rather less has been heard about the fourth component, namely, the biological basis of disease. This chapter addresses that particular theme. Our topic is genetic determinants of disease and examples of genetics and genetic disease in public health as illustrated by newborn and prenatal screening programs. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Medical CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - accessbiomedicalscience.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141963992 ER -