Chapter 3 Public Health: Vital Vocabulary Flashcards
Public health professional who investigates patterns and causes of disease and injury in a given population, and seeks to reduce the risk, occurrence, and negative impacts of these threats through research, public education, and legislative change.
epidemiologist
The study of the causes, patterns, prevalence, and control of disease in groups of people.
epidemiology
Collection of the methods, skills, and activities necessary to determine whether a service or program is needed, likely to be used, conducted as planned, and actually helps people.
evaluation
A framework developed by William Haddon, Jr, MD, as a method to generate ideas about injury prevention that address the host, agent, and environment and their impact in the pre-event, event, and post-event phases of the injury process.
Haddon matrix
Injuries that are purposefully inflicted by a person on himself or herself or on another person; examples include suicide or attempted suicide, homicide, rape, assault, domestic abuse, elder abuse, and child abuse.
intentional injuries
In the context of prevention, specific measures or activities designed to meet a program objective; categories include education/ behavior change, enforcement/ legislation, engineering/ technology, and economic incentives.
interventions
Number of nonfatally injured or disabled people; usually expressed as a rate, meaning the number of nonfatal injuries in a certain population in a given time period divided by the size of the population.
morbidity
Deaths caused by injury and disease; usually expressed as a rate, meaning the number of deaths in a certain population in a given time period divided by the size of the population.
mortality
State the intended effect of the program on participants or on the community in such terms as the participants’ increased knowledge, changed behaviors or attitudes, or decreased injury rates.
outcome (impact) objectives
Something that offers automatic protection from injury or illness, often without requiring any conscious change of behavior by the person; child-resistant bottles and airbags are examples.
passive interventions
Keeping an injury or illness from occurring.
primary prevention
State how a program will be implemented, describing the service to be provided, the nature of the service, and to whom it will be directed.
process objectives
An industry whose mission is to prevent disease and promote good health within groups of people.
public health
A potentially hazardous situation that puts people in a position in which they could be harmed.
risk
Characteristics of people, behaviors, or environments that increase the chances of disease or injury; some examples are alcohol use, poverty, smoking, or gender.
risk factors
Reducing the effects of an injury or illness that has already happened.
secondary prevention
The ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of injury data essential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice.
surveillance
Monitoring and comparing the current number and nature of medical cases against the expected volume of these cases at a given time and place in the community.
syndromic surveillance
Injuries that occur without intent to harm (commonly called accidents); some examples are motor vehicle collisions, poisonings, drownings, falls, and most burns.
unintentional injuries
A way of measuring and comparing the overall impact of deaths resulting from different causes; calculated based on a fixed age minus the age at death.
years of potential life lost (YPLL)
