Chronic Diseases - Public Health

Question 1

What is public health surveillance?

Answer 1

The ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to planning, implantation, and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those responsible for prevention and control

Question 2

What does public surveillance allow us to do?

Answer 2

• Describe the burden of our potential for disease
• Detect sudden changes in disease occurrence and distribution
• Monitor changes in disease prevalence over time
• Monitor changes in health behaviours
• Identify priorities
• Inform programmes and policies
• Evaluate prevention and control efforts
• Develop hypotheses and stimulate research

Question 3

Describe the 5 steps involved in public health surveillance

Answer 3

1. Detect the health event
2. Code and store data
3. Analyse data
4. Disseminate the information to the right people
5. Action is taken to reduce the risk of further events occurring

Question 4

List 5 examples of how the health of a population is measured

Answer 4

1. Mortality and morbidity statsitics publsihed by WHO
2. International classificaion of disease (ICD)
3. The global burden of disease study
4. The office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK
5. The population census and health survery in the UK

Question 5

Descibe how the health of a population is measured and the epidemiological techniques used

Answer 5

1. Mortality and morbidity statistics published by WHO - mortality statistics such as child and infant mortalility ratesare used as measures of the health of nations, using comparisons between high-, medium-, and low-income countries
2. International classification of disease - A common classification system used across all countries for reporting disease and health conditions. Each condition has a distinct code, but the same code for that condition isused by all health professionals throught the world. This enables us to monitor the global prevalence of disease
3. The global burden of disease study - largest study in the world that summarises global surveillance data. Give a picture of the health status at a global, regional, national and also local level
4. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the UK regularly publishes mortality statistics and are used extensively for monitoring the health of populations
5. General measures of health (and sickess) are obtained from the population cenuse held to date every 10 years, and from a variety of health surverys

Question 6

Define ‘incidence’

Answer 6

The rate occurence of new cases

Question 7

Define ‘prevalence’

Answer 7

Proportion of cases in the population at a given time

Question 8

What is an ‘epidemic curve’?

Answer 8

A graph in which the number of new cases of a disease is plotted against an interval of time to describe a specific epidemic or outbreak

Question 9

Define ‘mortality rate’

Answer 9

A measure of the frequency of occurrence of death in a defined population during a specified interval

Question 10

Define ‘case fatality rate’

Answer 10

A measure of the frequency of occurrence of death in a defined population during a specified interval

Question 11

What is ‘frequency patterns’?

Answer 11

Refers to the occurrence of health-related events by time, place, and person

Question 12

Define ‘outbreak’

Answer 12

A sudden increase in occurrences of disease

Question 13

Define ‘endemic’

Answer 13

The habitual presence (or usual occurence) of a disease within a given geographical area

Question 14

Define ‘epidemic’

Answer 14

A serious outbreak in a single community, population, or region

Question 15

Define ‘pandemic’

Answer 15

An epidemic which is spreading around the world affecting hundredsof thousands of people, across many countries