Introduction and Aim: While a doctor treats people who are sick, those of us working in public health try to prevent people from getting sick or injured in the first place. We also promote wellness by encouraging healthy behaviors. The first year in the medical faculty should be able to draw a frame for public health notion. In this study I would like to see the knowledge and view of ‘public health’ in first grade students before they began public health related lectures in the faculty.

Materials and Methods: The WHO What’s Public Health Questionnaire (PHQ) for Community was translated into Turkish and back translated in English. The PHQ was made of twelve simple multiple-choice questions. The Turkish PH questionnaire was self-administered in 240 (93.75%) medical students with 46.7% men between the age of 18 and 21 years (M = 19.07 years, SD = 1.49) enrolled in first grade medical faculty in Ankara in the last three years. (2016-2017: 76/84, 2017-2018: 89/96, 2018-2019: 75/86). The PHQ was applied before the first public health lecture and collected in 15 minutes. The questionnaire was anonymous and contained questions related to sociodemographic factors and PH. SPSS 22. 0 was used to compare the difference between three years cohort. Ethical consent was taken from the board of the faculty fort he cohort study.

Results: The percentage of correct answers is low every year. It was seen that the most common cause of death, the eradicated disease, and inadequate methods to prevent food contamination were more widely known by first year students in the 2016-2017 period (p=0.007, p<0.001, p=0.005). The element mercury causing neurological disease that was inspired in the Madhatter, the vitamin deficiency and the definiton of epidemiology were more known by the first-year students in the 2018-2019 period (p <0.001, p < 0.001, p <0.001, p = 0.008). It was observed that the scurvy disease, which is prevented by folic acid and the level of physical activity in a normal adult was significantly more known by the students in the 2017-2018 period (p <0.001). There was no difference between the frequency of knowing the name given to the sterilization process of milk; the fluoridation of teeth which is an important point in preventive dental health, mortality of smoking related diseases and definition of infectious disease (p> 0.05). All of the students think that these issues are important in protecting the health of the public. 73% of the students said yes to the question ‘Do you think that these issues are Public Health issues? ’.

Discussion and Recommendations: Students in first year are coming from the community and they may represent the PH view of community. We might prepare PH campaigns which address the meaning and view of PH for community level in order to increase the wellness.

Key words: Awareness, Community, Health, Student, Medicine