Can The Population Health “Fantasy Equation” Be Solved? Does It Need To Be?

Health Affairs March 3, 2022
David Kindig, John Mullahy

Let’s begin at the end—the final sentence of “Understanding Population Health Terminology,” a paper published by one of us, Kindig, in 2007: “The overriding population health question is, what is the optimal balance of investments (e.g., dollars, time, policies) in the multiple determinants of health (e.g., behavior, environment, socioeconomic status, medical care) over the life course that will maximize overall health outcomes and minimize health inequities at the population level? This is a significant challenge that will require decades of attention by scholars and policymakers.”

This idea derives from the 1990 Evans-Stoddart population field model that has been the intellectual underpinning of our field for decades. This paper and its final figure, exhibit 1, shows the evolution from the medical...

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