Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	Mary Becraft, BSN (Loma Linda University Health)

Description
This book covers a very broad array of public health topics ranging from American opioid overdoses to flood risks associated with climate change. It divides its variety of health topics into four categories: populations, inequities, lifecourse changes, and social ecological health. In alignment with its title, the book takes a novel approach to audience engagement: it places focus on educational illustrations paired with brief relevant supportive text to encourage critical thinking in a method that is not unlike popular social media platform postings. Images take center stage, not words.

Purpose
The book uses illustrations to help disseminate scholarly findings that demonstrate fundamental public health methods and concerns. In doing so, the authors seek to create a storybook of sorts: the contained informational images pique readers' curiosities, while written descriptions provide context and permit further exploration into fundamental public health issues and related questions. This unique image-based approach successfully fulfills the book's objective of engaging and appealing to both those of scientific backgrounds as well as those less familiar with the discussed subjects. This book is greatly needed as it appeals to the public it seeks to serve as well as influential professionals.

Audience
Although (American) students are listed as the authors' target audience, the book successfully bridges the wide gap between varying levels of scientific- and research-oriented education. The image-based approach is appropriate and, most importantly, easy to understand for readers ranging from public health students to professors. The authors also correctly identify the incompleteness of imagery alone and the consequent need for deeper discussion, further bolstering the authors' credibility. This book is particularly useful to students due to its ability to provide ample information in a manner that is brief and engaging while additionally providing a substantial arsenal of public health topics for exploration. The contributors boast extensive public health careers as physicians and successful authors in areas such as epidemiology and substance abuse, as evident in the interpretive text and the article selection.

Features
This book provides an overview of major subjects within four related areas of public health: population health, identification/reduction of health inequities, health evolution throughout lifecourse, and exposures influencing health outcomes. The diverse topic discussions are exemplary in their application of critical thinking and their display of the interconnectedness of public health and policy. The chapter "Working Against Opioid Overdoses", in which overdose data are provided in an occupational context, is particularly interesting. This encourages readers to step back and consider the complexity of multiple factors influencing opioid use and abuse, thereby better understanding the origins of substance abuse patterns. The book's unique format provides an equal weight of imagery and text that succeeds in emphasizing reader engagement and knowledge acquisition. However, there is a significant drawback present within several chapters: the low-quality, grayscale images sometimes interfere with the intended color-coded appearance of data. This may create substantial confusion and misinterpretation in sections such as in the chapter entitled "The Old Country". While the authors do provide information and references to permit readers to locate the multicolor images online, a future edition will greatly benefit from high-quality color images.

Assessment
This book is refreshingly original in its illustrated approach to public health. It is unlike other works in its field in its very balanced use of scholarly graphs, charts, and infographics to communicate various principles of change, equity, and health promotion among a wide variety of demographics and populations. The text is exceptionally readable and has a unique method of reducing reader fatigue to engage its audience and permit curiosity that nurtures a higher level of thinking. Professors, researchers, students, and curious readers alike will enjoy this book and what it has to offer. The images demonstrate public health in a way that inspires wonder and simplifies complex subjects: numbers and charts allow the audience to visualize the true impact of interventions over time. While the book would be aided from the inclusion of color images, the field of public health and the populations it serves will greatly benefit from similar future works.