Society’s understanding of what constitutes “well-being” is centered around medicine and I am passionate about shifting the narrative towards public health where we promote health rather than treat illness.

Alessandra Andreacchi
Public Health Researcher 

Meet Alessandra Andreacchi, our Public Health Insight Community Star! Alessandra works in population and public health research studying chronic disease epidemiology. She is excited to begin her PhD in Epidemiology this fall!

In this post, Alessandra shares her passion for public health by providing responses to the following questions:

What does public health mean to you?

Public health means preventing illness, and promoting and protecting health and well-being.

It means understanding factors that influence health and taking upstream, evidence-based efforts rooted in equity to keep communities healthy and enhance quality of life.

For this to be possible, public health emphasizes that the health of populations are a collective responsibility.

What work do you do in public health?

My work has been in population and public health research studying chronic disease epidemiology.

I have been working in academia at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada focusing on aging and the prevention of obesity and related chronic diseases.

I’m excited to be starting a PhD in Epidemiology in the fall of 2021!

What is your public health message?

The COVID-19 pandemic has proven how important it is for us to maintain our health and prevent illness, rather than to treat it.

To a greater extent, we’ve witnessed how external factors and social determinants, like income, employment and access to health services, affect our ability to maintain health.

Society’s understanding of what constitutes “well-being” is centered around medicine and I am passionate about shifting the narrative towards public health where we promote health rather than treat illness.