The Public in Public Health: Economic Value from the Public’s Perspective

A foundational principle of health economics is the concept of “value.” A global consensus on how to define and hence measure value in public health is lacking. The negative consequences of this potential mismatch of perceiving value may include disengagement, defiance, and destruction from a social interaction perspective with associated increased morbidity and mortality. One potential reason for this mismatch is that any resource or intervention can be valued differently by different groups of people, such as the public and public health practitioners, academicians, researchers, officials, and funders, and by different groups within these subgroups. This potential mismatch of perceiving value can also be fueled by who has and does not have influence on making these official definitions of value. Yet, the advent of current social media and its relative ease of use and accessibility may be giving more influence to groups who traditionally have had less, specifically the public. The goal of this Research Topic is to give a voice to the public’s experiences and expectations of public health with the aim to identify any potential mismatches that exist between what the public values in public health and what public health offers. These experiences and expectations may take into consideration relatively new influences, such as social media and the Wellness Culture. To achieve this Research Topic’s goal, input from the public, i.e., the users of public health systems, must be incorporated into the analysis. This Research Topic’s objectives include identifying effective strategies to address the mismatches between what the public states they value and what public health systems offer and advancing public health systems that improve the public’s mortality, morbidity, and quality of life through incorporating into these public health systems what the public states they valueTo gather further insights into the public’s perspective and experiences on public health, we welcome articles addressing, but are not limited to, the following themes:1. The public’s conceptualization of public health.2. Needed public health resources and interventions from the public’s perspective3. The public’s awareness of public health resources, interventions, and accomplishments. Innovative solutions to increase this awareness. 4. Gaps between offered and needed, from the public’s perspective, public health resources and interventions. Innovative solutions to address this gap.5. Reasons why the public is not utilizing offered public health resources and interventions. Innovative solutions to increase utilization.6. Different public’s subgroups’ conceptualization of public health needed public health services, and effectiveness of the public health services.7. Impact of social media on the public’s conceptualization of public health, needed public health services, and effectiveness of the public health services.8. Impact of the Wellness Culture on the public’s conceptualization of public health, needed public health services, and effectiveness of the public health services. Topic editors: Dina Hooshyar, Steven L. Arxer Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/80008/the-public-in-public-health-economic-value-from-the-publics-perspective