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Peer Review

Public Health Today

Reviewed:

Aug 11, 2026 by Health Sciences
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Ratings

Overall Rating: 4.8 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 4.5 stars
Ease of Use: 4.8 stars
Overview:

This book is designed for undergraduate students but can also be used for all levels of public health education.

Type of Material:

  • Open (Access) Textbook
Recommended Uses:

  • Assigned text for lecture class, homework, and useful supplement material.
Technical Requirements:

  • Internet access
  • Web browser
Identify Major Learning Goals:

After active engagement with the material, the learner will 

  • Explain the public health concepts;
  • Obtain a better understanding of its fundamentals;
  • Describe what public health is and what it does for the health and quality of life of the entire world (humans, animals, ecosystems, etc.).

There are specific learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter.

Target Student Population:

  • College Upper Division Level, Professional
  • Per author: “This book is designed for undergraduate students but can also be used for all levels of public health education.”
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

  • Ability to navigate a book online.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Information is relevant and current.
  • Historical perspectives are appropriately integrated with the lessons.
  • Content concepts are well described and supported by references.
  • The format and delivery of the content are applicable and informative. 

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Teaching -learning goals are clearly outlined at the beginning of each chapter.
  • The potential to measure learning is identified in most chapters through activities such as questions and assessments; these interactive activities promote and reinforce conceptual understanding and the assessment of learning outcomes.
  • Images and public health examples are excellent!
Concerns:

  • It would be helpful to include prerequisite knowledge; several concepts appear to be at a more advanced level.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

  • Level one headings are set up.
  • The text is easy to use, and the content is well outlined through a Content Menu bar. 
  • Text is selectable.
  • Videos include closed captioning.
  • SmartLinks use ordinary text and are in working order.
  • Page navigation is found in the lower right-hand corner of the page to prompt the user to click the arrow and continue to the next page.
  • The left upper part of page includes a Table of Contents for easy moving around within the textbook. 

 

 

Concerns:

  • Consider adding alt text to describe the graphs and images for people using screen readers. For detailed graph and image descriptions, include text that follows the graphs/images to describe the details.
Other Issues and Comments:

  • This is a relevant public health resource that could be used in a variety of educational settings.
  • The book includes outstanding and interesting content with interactive knowledge checks.

 

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