Chapter 3: Old and new public health

Question 1

What diseases were the biggest killers during the 1900s?

Answer 1

Circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases, injury
and poisoning, and infectious diseases.

Question 2

What happened to Australia’s health status?

Answer 2

Australia’s health status has improved since 1900. Life expectancy has increased and mortality rates have decreased since 1900.

Question 3

What does the ‘old’ public health model include?

Answer 3

• improving the quality of housing.
• developing sewage systems to ensure that human waste is disposed of safely.
• enforcing safer working conditions to prevent injuries being sustained within the workplace context.
• ensuring that birthing practices were hygienic to reduce maternal and under 5 mortality rates.
• delivering vaccinations to a significant proportion of the population to reduce the incidence of infectious and respiratory diseases.

Question 4

Define ‘old’ public health

Answer 4

‘Old’ public health refers to an approach to health that was developed at the beginning of the 20th century that involved improving the safety of the physical environment and developing public health programs to prevent communicable disease.

Question 5

Define biomedical approach to health

Answer 5

The biomedical approach to health (also known as the biomedical model of health) focuses on the biological causes of illness and disease in order to treat symptoms once they are displayed by a patient, as well as cure diseases.

Question 6

What does the biomedical approach to health include?

Answer 6

• x ray
• antibiotics
• mri
• ct scan
• medicine
• surgery

Question 7

What are the advantages of the biomedical approach?

Answer 7

• life expectancy is extended and quality of life is improved.
• it can lead to significant advances in the medical technology and research.
• most people and conditions can be treated and cured.

Question 8

What are the limitations (disadvantages) of the biomedical approach?

Answer 8

• the ‘fix it’ approach doesn’t promote good health.
• it relies on costly medical technology and practitioners.
• not all conditions can be treated or cured.

Question 9

Define ‘new’ public health

Answer 9

‘New’ public health refers to a contemporary approach to public health that involves preventing diseases from occurring through promoting behavioural and lifestyle change.

Question 10

What is the social model of health?

Answer 10

The social model of health focuses on the broader factors that impact health, including lifestyle and socioeconomic factors, in order to prevent the development of diseases that are influenced by behaviour.

Question 11

What are the principles of the social model of health?

Answer 11

I (involves intersectoral collaboration)
D (addresses broader determinants of health)
E (empowers individuals and communities)
A (acts to enable access to healthcare)
R (acts to reduce social inequities)

Question 12

Explain ‘involves intersectorial collaboration’

Answer 12

‘Involves intersectoral collaboration’ refers to ensuring the public and private sectors of the economy work together in order to achieve health-related goals.

Question 13

Explain ‘addresses the broader determinants of health’

Answer 13

‘Addresses the broader determinants (or factors) of
health’ refers to focusing on the large-scale systems that influence the health and wellbeing of whole communities, not just individuals.

Question 14

Explain ‘empowers individuals and communities’

Answer 14

‘Empowers individuals and communities’ refers to inspiring individuals and communities to recognise their role in promoting their own health and wellbeing.

Question 15

Explain ‘acts to enable access to healthcare’

Answer 15

‘Acts to enable access to healthcare’ refers to aiming to ensure that everybody within a community can access essential healthcare services without facing any barriers.

Question 16

Explain ‘acts to reduce social inequities’

Answer 16

‘Acts to reduce social inequities’  involves ensuring that all social groups have the same level of access to the resources that improve their health and wellbeing.

Question 17

What are the advantages of the social model?

Answer 17

• The social model of health focuses on vulnerable population groups
• The social model of health promotes good health and enables individuals to take control of their own health and wellbeing.
• The social model of health prevents people from developing illness and disease in the first place
• The social model of health is less expensive than the biomedical model of health.

Question 18

What are the limitations (disadvantages) of the social model?

Answer 18

• The social model of health places a significant emphasis on health promotion campaigns, which may not always be successful
• Some diseases nonetheless cannot be prevented through behavioural changes
• The social model of health does not account for people who have already developed an illness or disease

Question 19

Define ‘Health Promotion’

Answer 19

Health promotion refers to the ‘process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health.

Question 20

What is the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion?

Answer 20

Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion outlines a series of strategies and action areas that are required to develop effective health promotion campaigns and achieve good health for all.

Question 21

What are the Ottawa Charter strategies?

Answer 21

• ‘Advocate’
• ‘Mediate’ 
• ‘Enable’ 

Question 22

What are the Ottawa Charter action areas?

Answer 22

Bad (Build healthy public policy)
Cats (Create supportive environments)
Smell (Strengthen community action)
Dead (Develop personal skills)
Rats (Reorient health services)

Question 23

Explain ‘build healthy public policy’

Answer 23

‘Build healthy public policy’ refers to removing financial or social barriers in order to implement rules and legislation that promote health and wellbeing.

Question 24

Explain ‘create supportive environments’

Answer 24

‘Create supportive environments’ refers to ensuring that the natural environment, social environment, and infrastructure is safe for the implementation of health promotion.

Question 25

Explain ‘strenghten community action’

Answer 25

‘Strengthen community action’ refers to motivating the community to develop and implement health promotion campaigns to address the most pressing issues that they face.

Question 26

Explain ‘develop personal skills’

Answer 26

‘Develop personal skills’ refers to delivering health promotion that provides people with resources that
they can use to take control of and improve their own health and wellbeing.

Question 27

Explain ‘reorient health services’

Answer 27

‘Reorient health services’ refers to shifting the focus from a biomedical model of health that involves diagnosing and treating illness and disease to using health promotion to prevent the development of illness and disease altogether.

Question 28

Compare the biomedical approach and the social model of health

Answer 28

The biomedical approach focuses on curing, diagnosing, treating, and managing conditions while the social model focuses on preventing conditions before they occur. The biomedical approach also has an individual focus, by improving individuals’ conditions through treatment methods while the social model has a population focus, by aiming to effectively prevent the incidence of conditions through health promotion.