'Population Health’ is a relatively new term. It refers to programmes of action and inquiry concerned with:

• differences in health outcomes between, and within, populations;
• understanding how the many factors that determine health interact with each other to create these differences;
• the biological pathways linking wider social, economic and environmental determinants of health to population health outcomes;
• the types and mix of policies and interventions best placed to improve a population’s health; and
• processes of learning, knowledge transfer, and partnership between academics and practitioners, to enable positive change to occur.

For further information see Kindig, D and Stoddart, G (2003) What is Population Health? American Journal of Public Health 93(3): 380-3.