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Let's learn public health!
A growing collection of short, accessible videos from the Let’s Learn Public Health YouTube channel, designed to make core public health concepts easier to understand. Explore videos by topic, discover new releases and quickly find clear explanations of key ideas across public health.
A collection of video covering important public health topics ranging from what is public health?, the social determinants of health to antimicrobial resistance.
WHAT IS PUBLIC HEALTH?
AN INTRODUCTION
Public health focuses on improving the health of a population and preventing health problems before they happen. We’ll take a look at what public health is, how it is different to clinical medicine, who is responsible for doing it and how it’s done!
WHAT MAKES US HEALTHY? THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH
The Social Determinants of Health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age. They have a large influence on our health. We will look what they are, how it impacts health and a useful framework to understand it.
HEALTH PROMOTION AND THE OTTAWA CHARTER
Health Promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. We’ll take a look at some key concepts and the Ottawa Charter – a landmark document providing guidance to the goals and concepts of health promotion.
PREVENTING DISEASE -
LEVELS OF PREVENTION
Prevention is a key focus of public health. In this video we look at what prevention is, how it works, the levels of prevention, (primordial, primary, secondary and tertiary) and different approaches (high risk and population).
AN INTRODUCTION TO NON COMMUNICABLE DISEASE
Noncommunicable diseases are a large and diverse group of diseases that a responsible for millions of deaths each year. In this video, we’ll take a look at what they are, and some key features about them.
HEALTH ECONOMIC EVALUATION
THE BASICS
Health economic evaluation is a tool that allows us to make decisions on the allocation of scarce resources. In this video, we will take a simplified look at what it is, and the main types of health economic evaluations.
FOOD SAFETY
AN INTRODUCTION
Each year, unsafe food leads to over 600 million people getting sick. In this video, we’ll take a look at what makes food unsafe, health impacts, and how it can be prevented - at an individual, industry, national and global level.
AIR POLLUTION
A GLOBAL KILLER
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Air pollution is a major environmental health risk leading to the deaths of millions of people around the world. We take a look at what it is, types of pollutants and ways to control it.
RADIATION 101
WHAT IS IT?
​What is radiation, and how does it affect health? This video gives an overview of what radiation is, the types of radiation, how it is measured and the health risks.
Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health and disease in populations. It provides the tools to identify patterns, investigate causes, measure risk and generate evidence to guide public health action.
This collection brings together videos on epidemiology and research methods, covering key concepts, measures, study designs and approaches used to understand population health and answer public health questions.
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES
A BEGINNERS GUIDE.
This video gives a simple overview of the most common types of epidemiological studies, their advantages and disadvantages. These include ecological, case-series, case control, cohort and interventional studies. It also looks at systematic reviews and meta-analysis.
RANDOMISED CONTROLLED STUDIES
AN INTRODUCTION
How do we know if a medicine, vaccine or public health programme really works? One powerful way is through a randomised controlled trial, or RCT.
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In this video, we’ll look at how RCTs work, different types of randomisation, why blinding matters, and how RCTs help us assess whether an intervention actually caused a change in an outcome
SURVEILLANCE - THE EYES AND EARS OF PUBLIC HEALTH
Effective surveillance is essential for detecting health threats early, tracking trends and guiding timely public health action. We look at passive, active, sentinel, rumour and syndromic surveillance, as well as the features of a good surveillance system.
INCIDENCE AND PREVALENCE
A SIMPLE EXPLANATION
Incidence and prevalence are two fundamental ways we measure disease but are commonly confused. In this video, you will learn what each one means, how to calculate them, and how they relate to each other.
WHAT IS A P-VALUE? A SIMPLE EXPLANATION
P values are everywhere! Journal articles, medical headlines, statistical classes. It sounds important, but what does it really mean? In this video, we’ll break down the concept of the p-value and hypothesis testing in plain language:
AN INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN RESEARCH ETHICS
Human research has helped advance medicine and public health, but it also has a dark past. In this video, we will take a look at human research ethics, the lessons learned from history, ethical principles, and the protections used to help safeguard participants.
Infectious diseases are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality globally. A key focus of public health is preventing transmission and detecting and responding to outbreaks. This collection of videos introduces basic concepts in infectious disease and highlights selected diseases of public health importance. It also covers topics such as vaccines and antimicrobial resistance.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
A BEGINNERS GUIDE
This video is a brief overview of infectious diseases - a significant global public health issue leading to millions of deaths each year. We will take a look at what they are, some terms used to describe characteristics of infectious diseases and different types.
THE BASICS OF CONTROLLING INFECTIOUS DISEASES
This video takes a look at how infectious diseases are transmitted and the different tools we have to control them. They include behaviour change, vaccines, surveillance, environmental changes, infection control and medication.
OUTBREAK INVESTIGATION
A STEP BY STEP APPROACH
Outbreaks of infectious diseases can cause illness and can lead to deaths. Finding out what caused an outbreak can be challenging. In this video we take a look at the key steps in which an infectious disease outbreak is investigated.
ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE
AN INTRODUCTION
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top global public health issues facing humanity. It can lead to infections that are harder to treat, increasing the risk of severe disease and death. In this video, we will take a quick look at what it is, why it is a problem, the main drivers and how to prevent it.
VACCINES
THE BASICS
Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in public health, preventing an estimated 3.5 to 5 million deaths every year. In this video, we will look at how they work, different types of vaccines and how vaccines are developed and monitored for safety
HAND HYGIENE
WHY? HOW? WHEN?
Hand hygiene is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, but do you know how it actually works? In this video, we take a quick look at why hand hygiene matters, how they work at the molecular level, and when each method should be used.
MPOX
A QUICK INTRODUCTION
Mpox is an emerging infectious disease of public health importance with an ongoing global outbreak. In this video, we will take a quick look at what it is, how it got its name, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
NIPAH VIRUS - WHAT IS IT? SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?
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Nipah virus often makes headlines because it can cause severe disease and has a high reported mortality rate. But what is Nipah virus? How does it spread? What are the symptoms? How do we treat it? Can we prevent it? and.... could it become the next pandemic?
AVIAN INFLUENZA
Health economic evaluation is a tool that allows us to make decisions on the allocation of scarce resources. In this video, we will take a simplified look at what it is, and the main types of health economic evaluations.
A key part of public health often involves understanding risk and responding to situations where rapid, informed action is needed. This collection introduces key concepts in risk assessment, risk communication and emergency response, and explores how public health helps prepare for, manage and communicate during health threats and emergencies.
RISK AND
HOW TO USE A RISK MATRIX
In this video, we take a look at what risk means and how it is assessed in a simple, practical way. We’ll explore the relationship between likelihood and consequence, and show how these can be combined using a risk matrix to help prioritise risks and support decision-making
RISK COMMUNICATION BASICS
WHY FACTS ALONE IS NOT ENOUGH
Why do some people panic over tiny risks while others ignore serious danger? In this video, we break down the basics of risk communication - what risk means, why people perceive it differently, and how to effectively communicate during emergencies
RADIATION EMERGENCIES
THE BASICS
This short video is an introduction to how radiation emergencies are managed. It goes through the basics of types of emergencies, exposure pathways and will explore the key response strategies used by emergency management teams.
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