According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), public health is defined as “the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. On the other hand, public health is concerned with protecting and evaluating the health of entire populations.” These populations vary in size and density, ranging from small, rural neighborhoods to an entire country or continent.

In seeking to understand the unique aspects of a community’s relationship to health, researchers have tied seemingly isolated data patterns to larger trends across demographic divides. Here, stark disparities between groups reveal themselves, illustrating chronic health inequalities stemming from inequity.