The Board examines and develops strategies for disease prevention, taking into account the multiple factors affecting health--genetic endowment, social and environmental conditions, individual behavior (including tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diet, and exercise) and personal preventive services. The Board also addresses both the science base for such interventions and the public health infrastructure, and the education and supply of health professionals necessary for carrying them out. The Board has an ongoing program of studies on maternal, child, and reproductive health; vaccines and immunization; AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases; environmental and occupational health; and public health infrastructure.

Throughout all of its work, the Board puts emphasis on population-based interventions as well as clinical preventive services, and on understanding and mitigating risks to the public's health, including environmental, behavioral, and medical. Some of the crosscutting themes that characterize and guide the Board's work are ethical issues in public health, the application of scientific information in public health policymaking, the evaluation of preventive services and population-based interventions, the efficient allocation of societal resources for prevention, and the development of the science base for health promotion and disease prevention, including behavioral science.

Top Priorities for the Coming Year

• re-examining public health capacities and responsibilities to meet public health challenges
• occupational and environmental health issues
• community interventions to promote healthful behavior