ABPM Public Health study guide
ABPM Public Health · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
Public Health and General Preventive Medicine is one of the primary specialty certifications offered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM). The specialty focuses on promoting health, preventing disease, and managing the health of communities and defined populations, and its practitioners combine population-based public health skills with knowledge of primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention-oriented clinical practice across a wide variety of settings. Certification is aimed at physicians who have completed accredited preventive medicine residency training, or who qualify through complementary or special pathways, and who hold an unrestricted, currently valid medical license. Candidates must also document graduate-level coursework across biostatistics, epidemiology, social and behavioral sciences, health services administration, and environmental health sciences. The ABPM Public Health study guide has 5 sections and about 1,352 words.
01Epidemiology
Epidemiology questions reward precise definitions. Know the difference between incidence (new cases ÷ population at risk over time) and prevalence (all existing cases ÷ total population at a point or period).
301 words, about 2 min02Biostatistics
Biostatistics tests whether observed differences exceed chance. Know descriptive vs inferential statistics, the null hypothesis , type I error (α) and type II error (β) , and power (1−β) .
283 words, about 1 min03Health Services Administration
This domain covers how health systems are organized, financed, and governed. Know the three aims (cost, quality, access) and the iron triangle trade-off.
248 words, about 1 min04Environmental Health Sciences
Environmental health links exposures to health effects through source → pathway → receptor models. Know the exposure routes (inhalation, ingestion, dermal) and dose–response relationships.
246 words, about 1 min05Social and Behavioral Sciences
This domain explains how social conditions and behavior shape health. Know the social determinants of health (income, education, housing, employment, food security, neighborhood, social support) and the fundamental cause idea-social advantage persists across changing disease patterns.
274 words, about 1 min