Block 1 Flashcards
What is Statistical Normality?
Based on the normal (Gaussian) distribution
95% of the population should be within ± 2.5 standard deviations of the mean
What is Social Normality?
What society finds acceptable or desirable.
Changes within a given society, culture, and time.
What is Optimal Normality?
‘Normal’ value is determined by what is required for optimal health
Not the mean/median of a population.
Define Illness
Subjective experience, varying between people.
Can be ill in the absence of disease.
Define Sickness
A social role given to or taken on by a person perceived to be ill.
Define Disease
Objective diagnosis using specific signs and symptoms.
Deviation from the biological norm.
Changes with medical advances.
What are the key features of the medical model?
- Normality = State of health is the absence of disease
- Abnormality = Ill health is based upon pathological changes
- Ill health is caused by biological misfortunes that are identified by signs/ symptoms and the process of diagnosis
- Cure is to restore to a healthy (normal) state
- Medical knowledge is exclusionary (the job of expects)
- Model is disease orientated and concerned with pathology
What are the criticisms of the medical model?
- Majority of power is in the hands of the medical profession not patients
- Shift to chronic/degenerative diseases which are not linked to simple biological causes and not amenable by medial cure
- Model does not include social/cultural influences on health
- People do not view normal as the same. Different views
What is the social model?
- Health is socially constructed (varied, uncertain and diverse)
- Ill health is also caused by social/cultural factors not only biological
- Causes can be identified via beliefs and interpretation
- Knowledge is not exclusionary
- Model is holistic (concerned with people’s lives and experiences and how they define health)
What is the WHO definition of health?
Give 4 other definitions of health
A state of complete social, physical and mental wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Health as absence from disease.
Health as functionality (ADLs.)
Health as freedom.
Health as an equilibrium.
Define prevalence of disease
A measure of how common a disease is
As a proportion.
(% or number in 1000/10000 etc.)
How would you work out disease prevalence?
P = (no. people with disease/total number of people) x 100 (for a %)
What are the 3 types of prevalence?
1. Point prevalence:
The prevalence at a given time (burden of disease)
2. Period prevalence:
The prevalence through a set range
3. Lifetime prevalence:
Prevalence of disease with respect to patients lifetime
Give one pro and one con of using prevalence of disease
Pro:
Prevalence is good at gauging the burden of disease Con:
Can be affected by the duration of the disease.
Define incidence
The rate at which new events occur in a population, over a defined period of time.
Either expressed as per n people of n years, or as n-person years
How would you calculate the incidence?
Incidence = (number of new cases)/(no. people observed x years observed) x units (eg, 1000 for per 1000 people etc)
What is a 95% confidence interval?
P = prevalence N = total population
Definition:
95% confidence interval is the range in which we expect 95% of the results to lie; 95% certain that the true value lies within that range.
Importance:
Important because it adds power and weighting to results; allows understanding of how significant the results are
Interpretation:
Results that occur outside of this range (i.e. outside of the null hypothesis) are considered statistically significant; results that are not in the range are described at significantly different.
Therefore, can reject the null hypothesis.
How would you calculate a confidence interval?
First calculate p, then the SE (which is a given equation.)
then: CI = p ± (1.96*SE.)
Standard error is a representation of sampling error.
What is a P value?
A number somewhere between 0 and 1.
It is the probability of the data falling within the range.
If it is, <5% then reject the null hypothesis (there is a statistical significant difference)
But if >5% then accept the null hypothesis
What is a census?
The simultaneous recording of demographic data by the government at a particular time
Pertaining to all the persons living in a particular territory
Does the UK have a census?
Yes! Every 10 years, legal requirement.
Taken since 1841.
98% coverage but some low enumeration groups.
Data goes to the Office of National Statistics.
What does CARTA stand for with respect to assessing quality of health information?
Completeness
Accuracy
Reliability
Timeliness
Accessibility