CoreMeist Public Health Flashcards
GMC duties of a doctor
- make the patient your first concern
- Keep professional knowledge and skills up to date
- Treat your patient politely and considerately
- Respect your patient’s right to confidentiality
- Listen to patients and respond to their concerns and preferences
- Never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues
- Work with colleagues in ways that best serve the patient’s interest
- Treat patients as individuals an respect their interest
What are psychosocial factors that increase CHD risk?
- Type A personality (hostile, competitive, impatient)
- Depression/anxiety
- Psychosocial work characteristics (long working hours, stressful job, high demand low control)
- Lack of social support
What does the Bradford Hill criteria aim to provide?
Epidemiological evidence of a causal relationship between an assumed cause and observed effecr
What are the Bradford Hill criteria?
- Temporality: does the cause precede the effect?
- Biological Plausibility: is the association consistent with existing knowledge?
- Consistency: have similar results been shown in other studies
- Strength: what is the strength of association between the cause and effect
- Dose/response: does increased exposure lead to increased effect
- Reversibility: does removal of a cause decrease the risk of the effect?
- Study design: is the evidence based on a robust study design
- Evidence: how many lines of evidence lead to the conclusion?
What are the UK guidelines for daily alcohol limits?
Men: 3-4 units/day
Women: 2-3
Pregnant: avoid altogether/never more than 1-2 units once or twice a week
What can 1 unit of alcohol refer to?
8g/10ml pure alcohol
Half a pint of beer
Small glass of wine
Single measure of spirits = strength of drink (%ABV) x amount of liquid (ml) / 1000
Describe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
Pre and post-natal growth retardation
CNS abnormalities: mental retardation, irritability, incoordination, hyperactivity.
Craniofacial abnormalities, congenital defects, increase in incidence of birth marks and hernias
Current strategies for primary prevention of alcoholism
Drinkaware - alcohol labelling. THINK! drink driving campaign 'Know your limits' binge drinking campaign Restriction on alcohol advertising Minimum pricing Legislation - e.g. age limit Opening hours Glass substitution
What strategies aim towards secondary prevention of alcoholism - e.g. screening and intervention
Ask about it routinely using screening questions/tools.
Detect problem drinking - e.g. laboratory tests.
CAGE and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)
Referral to specialists.
Help set goals, agree on plan, provide educational materials.
What does the CAGE questionnaire aim to identigy?
At risk drinking
What are the 4 questions involved in the CAGE questionnair? What result indicates a problem?
- Have you ever felt you should cut down on your drinking?
- Have people annoyed you by criticising your drinking or suggesting you should cut down?
- Do you ever feel bad/guilty about your drinking?
- Have you ever taken a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or get rid of a hangover?
2or> positive responses indicates a problem
What are signs of alcohol dependence?
3 or more in the last 12 months of:
- withdrawal symptoms
- tolerance
- keep drinking despite problems
- Cannot keep within drinking limits
- Spend a lot of time drinking/recovering from drinking
- spend less time on other important matters
definition of health
WHO:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
key principles/domains of public health
Health promotion/improvement, health protection, improving services.
Wider determinants of health (looking at bigger picture). Population based as opposed to individual.
what are modifiable risk factors that cause disease in poorest vs. developed countries globally?
poorest: underweight, unsafe sex, unsafe water and sanitation
developed: tobacco, HBP, alcohol
why does migrant health have different focusses to UK public health?
cultural practices - e.g. FGM
environments
living conditions
war and conflict –> internal displacement, refugees
What are the social determinants of health?
financial, educational, georgraphical, cultural
What is equality vs equity? why so important in public health?
allocation of ressources based on need - getting everyone to the same end point by levelling the playing field
describe the health determinants model/socio-economic model of health
at centre: age, sex, hereditary factors
- individual lifestyle factors
- social and community influences
- living and working conditions
- general social, cultural and economic conditions
what is the basis of the inverse care law?
perverse relationship between need for healthcare and utilisation of services - those who need medical care most are least likely to access it
barriers to access - e.g. lack of childcare, transport, education
define primary prevention of disease - and examples?
- changes exposure to risk
- prevents disease occuring
e. g. lifestyle changes, fluoridation of drinking water, immunisation in childhood
define secondary prevention of disease - and examples?
- detection of early disease (e.g. breast cancer screening)
- interventions that prevent reoccurrence (e.g. aspirin to prevent further MI)
define tertiary prevention of disease - and examples?
- minimisation of disability and prevent complications - focusses on maximising quality of life
e. g. rehabilitation post-stroke
public health disease prevention paradox?
if something brings a lot of benefit to the population, it is likely to bring little benefit to each individual
screening - classifications
primary: prevent disease occurring (find risk factors, reduce levels)
secondary: detect disease early so alter course of disease (e.g. mammography for breast cancer detection)
what categories can the 12 Wilson-Jungner principles of screening be subdivided into?
criteria relating to:
- the condition
- the test
- the treatment
- risks and benefits
Wilson-Jungner principles of screening: name 5 of the principles
inc. one from each relating to the condition, test, treatment, risks and benefits
condition:
- is it an important health problem
- is the natural history of the health problem well understood
- is there a detectable early stage
test:
- does a suitable test exist for the early stage
- is the test acceptable
- can it be repeated
treatment
- is there an accepted treatment for the disease
- are facilities for diagnosis and treatment available
- is there adequate health service provision for people found positive?
risks and benefits:
- is there an agreed policy on who to treat
- are the costs balances against the benefits
- are the risks, both psychological and physical, balanced against the benefits
what other screening criteria exists apart from Wilson Jungner?
WHO screening criteria - 10 principles based on Wilson-jungner
examples of screening programs
breast cancer, colon cancer, STIs, diabetic retinopathy
what are some restrictions for screening programmes?
age restricted and condition dependent
some can be requested
What are the 2 differing ways of monitoring prevalence of diseases?
Active - seeking out people actively to establish prevalence
Passive - prevalence taken from existing data e.g. at sentinel GP practises/anonymous information
define prevalence
the proportion of a particular population found to be affected by a medical condition
define incidence
the probability of occurrence of a given medical condition in a population within a specified period of time - new cases in a specific period of time
define absolute risk
change in theriskof an outcome of a given treatment or activity in relation to a
comparison treatment or activity
define relative risk
ratio of the probability of an event occurring (for example, developing a disease,
being injured) in an exposed group to the probability of the event occurring in a comparison,
non-exposed group
what is meant by the prevention paradox?
shows that interventions can achieve large overall health gains for whole populations but might offer only small advantages to each individual. This leads to a misperception of the benefits of preventive advice and services by people who are apparently in good health
how is BMI calculated?
weight(kg) over height(m) squared
kg/m^2
prevalence probability
vs
incidence probability
Prevalence probability: probability of disease in the entire population at any point in time
Incidence probability: probability that a patient without disease develops the disease during an interval
what is meant by incidence rate?
the number of new cases per population at risk in a given time period
what is the significance of a rate ratio?
how is it calculated?
compare the incidenceratesof events occurring at any given point in time
95% confidence interval: 95% certain that the true result mean falls within the range of X and Y
what is meant by the odds ratio?
theoddsthat an outcome will occur given a particular exposure, compared to
theoddsof the outcome occurring in the absence of that exposure
what is meant by the doctrine of dual effect in medicine?
The idea that if something morally good has a morally bad side-effect it’s ethically OK to do it providing the bad side-effect wasn’t intended - even if the bad effect was foreseen.
Aiming to do good - e.g. extending life at expense of quality of life
what is meant by nominal variables in data collection?
2 or more categories, but there is no intrinsic ordering to the categories - e.g gender
what are binary variables?
only take 2 values
discrete variables vs continuous
discrete - can only take a finite number of values
continuous - can tae any value between min and max
ordinal variables
order matters but not the difference between values
at what p value is a result said to be statistically significant?
p<0.05 = reject null hypothesis
what is clinical significance compared to statistical significance
Just because a treatment has been shown to lead to statistically significant improvements in symptoms (p value <0.05) does not necessarily mean that these improvements will be clinically significant (i.e. meaningful or relevant to patients)
Relevance of a study’s finding to clinical practice cannot be proved statistically - it is a Question of clinical judgement as to whether the results detected are relevant.
How is the top down deductive argument used in medical ethics?
one specific ethical theory is consistently applied to each problem.
What are the four principles of medical ethics?
Briefly describe each
- Autonomy - the right of competent adults to make informed decisions about their own medical care
- Beneficence - doing the right thing to benefit others
- Non-maleficence - preventing harm, reducing harm and doing no harm
- Justice - being fair in distribution of benefits and risk
What is consequentialism when applied to medical ethics?
Act is valued in terms of its consequences/effect
How does deontology (kantianism) differ to consequentialism and virtue ethics in medical ethics?
Deontology is an approach to Ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, as opposed to the rightness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions (Consequentialism) or to the character and habits of the actor (Virtue Ethics)
What is the idea of virtue ethics in medicine? What characteristics should a doctor have?
Focuses on the character of the person who is doing the act as moral justification. Compassion Discernment Trustworthiness Integrity Conscientiousness
What is the Gini coefficient - social determinants of health inequalities
Statistical representation of a nation’s income distribution amongst its residences - lower coefficient = greater equality. UK has a relatively high inequality coefficient compared with scandinavian countries.
How does social class affect life expectancy?
Decreases as social class decreases. Gaps between lower and upper classes are increasing.
When a country reaches a certain income threshold what pattern is seen in terms of the health of its residents suffer from?
After this shift how do further increases in per capita income affect the health of a nation?
The epidemic diseases of poverty are replaced with degenerative diseases, then further increase in per capita income make little or no difference to the health of a nation
what affects a nations health more - the mean income (above a threshold) or the extent of income division?
The extent of income division within a society determines the population health. More unequal societies have worse health.
What is social class a measure of?
Social class is a measure of occupation, stratification, social position and access to power and resources. It can quantified using the Registrar General’s model (occupation focused) or the NS-SEC model.
What are the key challenges of an ageing population?
- Strains on pension and social security systems
- Increasing demand for health care
- Bigger need for trained health workforce
- Increasing demand for long-term care
- Pervasive ageism (denying older people the rights and opportunities available for other adults
What are some reasons cited for smoking?
- nicotine addiction
- coping with stress
- habit
- socialising
- fear of weight gain
Discuss the prevalence of smoking
- men smoke more than women, but this gap is closing
- prevalence is decreasing
- people from lower socioeconomic groups smoke more than those from higher ones
Measures put in place to curb smoking prevalence - e.g.s
- 2005: smoking banned in public places
- 2007: minimum age raised to 18
- nicotine replacement therapy available on the NHS as patches, hum, nasal spray, microtab, lozenges and inhalers
WHat are the 5(or 6) stages of the transtheoretical stages of change model?
- Pre-contemplation
- Contemplation
- Preparation
- Action
- Maintenance
(6. ) Relapse - back to stage 2
Some facts about global health inequalities: % population and diseased population, income vs health spending, distribution of health workers
Developing countries account for 84% of world population and 93% of the world burden of
disease.
They account for only 18% of global income and 11% of global health spending.
There is unequal distribution of nurses and beds to population ratios globally.
As the population ages and increases, what is happening to work fertility?
Decreasing
What are the millennium development goals?
8 goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world’s main development challenges. 3 of them are related to health.
State some of the 8 millennium development goals
- Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger
- Achieve Universal Primary Education
- Promote Gender Equality & Empower Women
- Reduce Child Mortality
- Improve Maternal Health
- Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
- Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Develop a Global Partnership for Development
What are the leading causes of child death globally?
- Pneumonia
- Diarrhoea
- Malaria
Arguments for screening programs
- prevent suffering
- early identification can be beneficial
- early treatment is cheaper
- patient satisfaction tends to be high
Arguments against screening programs
- psychological and physical damage caused by false positives and negatives
- adverse effects of screening tool on healthy people
- personal choice is compromised
What is sensitivity in relation to a screening test?
People who the test correctly identifies as having the disease out of all individuals with the disease (true positive results divided by total number of people with the disease who are screened). It is a measure of how well a test picks up those with a disease.
What is specificity in relation to screening tests?
Specificity of a test is the probability of a person without the disease testing negative
(true negative results divided by total number of people with the disease who are screened). It is
a measure of how well a test recognises those without the disease.
What is the positive predictive value?
The proportion of people with a positive test result who actually have
the disease
What is the negative predictive value?
of all the negative results, the proportion who actually do not have the disease - excludes the false negatives
People correctly excluded by the test.
Table of truth vs test result: if the test result in on the x axis and truth on the y axis how is sensitivity predicted? true positive = a false positive = b false negative = c true negative = d
Sensitivity = a/a+c
True positive/True positive+False negative
Table of truth vs test result: if the test result in on the x axis and truth on the y axis how is specificity predicted? true positive = a false positive = b false negative = c true negative = d
Specificity = d/b+d
true negative/true negative + false positive
Is it more important that a good screening test has a high negative or positive predictive value?
negative =
people who do not have the disease are correctly identified
It is important that this is high as false negatives are potentially dangerous
Describe the transtheoretical model of change
Describes the stages of behavioural change.
Starts with precontemplation - individual carries out behaviour without thinking of quitting.
Contemplation - individual starts to think about negative effects of behaviour
Preparation - individual prepares to change behavioural patterns and give up behaviour
Action - individual takes steps to stop behaviour
Manitenance - individual attempts to maintain lifestyle change
(can have relapse - maintenance —> contemplation stage)
What are some examples of public health interventions that have attempted to curb smoking?
(2 or 3)
1980s - no smoking on trains
1999 - royal family remove seal from tobacco products
2000s - smoking ban in public places
2007 - change in legal age
Also increases in tax, NHS stop smoking campaign, nicotine replacement therapy available on the NHS
What are some reasons cited as to WHY people smoke?
- addiction to nicotine
- method of coping with stress
- habit/behavioural addiction
- means of socialising
- fear of weight gain during/after cessation
What does Janz&Becker’s Health and Belief model attempt to measure?
The influence of an individual’s perception of their own health - attempts to explain and predict health behaviors. This is done by focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals.
What do Becker and Janz argue contribute to the threat perceived by an individual in regards to their own health?
- own individual perception
- Modifying factors: cues to action such as campaigns, articles, reminder postcards from healthcare professionals, illness/death of a friend)
- modifying factors: demographic and sociopsychological variables