The greatest public health victories of the last century -- public sanitation, vehicle safety measures, limits on smoking and tobacco use -- have all been facilitated by public policies. While policy is an unparalleled tool for effecting change in public health, most professionals are unprepared to plan, apply, or study policy in a consequential way.

Prevention, Policy, and Public Health provides a basic foundation for students, professionals, and researchers to be more effective in the policy arena. It offers information on the dynamics of the policymaking process, theoretical...