, 2012; Centers for Disease Control, Prevention 2011). Despite these developments, the meaning and strategic significance of community health remain challenging to fully define and to clearly distinguish XAV-939 chemical structure from related areas of public health practice, community engagement, or other related community development activities. The uncertainties

surrounding the meaning of community health are apparent even in the term’s deconstruction, as suggested by MacQueen and colleagues who – in commenting on the need for consensus on the definition of “community” within a public health context – noted that “… the lack of an accepted definition of community can result in different

collaborators forming contradictory or incompatible assumptions about community and can undermine our ability to evaluate the contribution of community collaborations to achievement of public health objectives” (MacQueen et al., 2001). These and other constraints on the shared understanding of the meaning and scope of community health may hamper the growth and effectiveness of this field. To address these challenges see more and help foster improved understanding of science and practice in “community health”, in this commentary we review definition frameworks for community health and examine factors having core

relevance to shaping the meaning of this term and growing field. We conclude by suggesting a potential framework for conceptualizing and advancing this field of public health practice through improved understanding of the meaning, scope, and science of community health. In the United States, the field of community health is anchored in a rich history of innovations in public health methods and programs directed at reducing else risk factor prevalence, decreasing acute and chronic disease burden and injury occurrence, and promoting health. Among these are seminal community intervention trials in the 1970s – such as the Stanford Three Community Study, North Karelia Project, and Stanford Five-City Project (Farquhar et al., 1977, Fortmann et al., 1995, McAlister et al., 1982, Salonen et al., 1981, Stern et al., 1976 and Wagner, 1982) – and a spectrum of community-centered efforts, including CDC’s Planned Approach to Community Health program in the early 1980s (Kreuter, 1992). Examples of programs introduced more recently include CDC’s Steps Program, Healthy Communities Program, REACH, and CPPW (Bunnell et al., 2012; CDC, Steps Program; CDC, Healthy Communities Program).