Health is not merely the absence of disease but rather the state of physical, emotional, mental, psychological, and social well-being.
Health is very important to all regardless of age or status. To carry on with the activities of life, one needs to be healthy and not just healthy, but live a healthy lifestyle. Just as the saying goes “health is wealth.” You have to be healthy first, to pursue success, dreams, goals, and aspirations in life. That is why health education is very important. People need to be aware of the importance of health and also checking their health status for any health challenges. For those who already have any form of health challenge, it is also imperative that they are fully educated on how to manage it or get cured as well as prevention from future reoccurrence. People also need to be aware of how to protect themselves from getting infected with some certain disease that are communicable and how to avoid spreading it around to other people this is where public health comes to play where policy making and research for disease and injury prevention are made for the people and various communities.
Health education is the process of educating people on the importance of health and how to live and maintain a healthy lifestyle while public health is the science and art of preventing disease and improving the quality of health especially as it regards to the public and communities. It is all about physical, mental, social, psychological well-being. It is a state of general well-being.
However, students tend to mistake health education with public health because they both deal on health and its improvement. You can see a lot of this mistake when they are choosing their undergraduate project topics. They end up choosing topics that are beyond the scope of health education. Health education is more on enlightening people all about health such as how to live a healthy life, how to prevent getting sick, various symptoms of diseases and its control and general well-being.

HEALTH EDUCATION

Health education can be defined as the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.
Health education builds peoples' knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about health. Health education also teaches about physical, mental, emotional, and social health. It motivates people to improve and maintain their health, prevent disease and reduce risky behaviors that could be detrimental to their health.

PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health has been defined as "the science and art of preventing disease”, prolonging life and improving quality of life through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, communities and individuals.
Public health is the health of the population as a whole, especially as the subject of government regulation and support. Public health can also be defined as the science of protecting the safety and improving the health of communities through education, policy making, and research for disease and injury prevention.
However, public health promotes the welfare of the entire population, ensures its security and protects it from the spread of infectious disease and environmental hazards, and helps to ensure access to safe and quality care to benefit the entire population.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEALTH EDUCATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Health education is the principle by which individuals and groups of people learn to behave in a manner conducive to the promotion, maintenance, or restoration of health.
While Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease”, prolonging life and improving quality of life through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, communities and individuals.
Health education builds peoples' knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about health.
While public health seeks to improve people’s knowledge on prevention of disease and also promotes the welfare of the entire population, ensures its security and protects it from the spread of infectious disease and environmental hazards

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, health education should be encouraged. People need to be aware of the importance of health and staying healthy as well. The relevance of staying healthy and living a healthy lifestyle cannot be overemphasized. There is need for students to look at some project topics on health education and also some on public health so as to get a clearer view of the difference between them.