Exam 1 Flashcards
Three core functions of public health
Assessment
-Monitor health status to identify community health problems, data collection, epidemiology, analysis
-Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards within the community
Policy development
-Inform, educate and empower people about health issues
-Mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems
-Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
Assurance
-Enforce laws and regulations that protect and ensure safety
-Link people to needed personal health services and assure that the provision of healthcare when otherwise unavailable
-Directly providing services
Public Health vs Medical Care
Public health regards the community as its patient, with the goal of improving health of the population - focusing on prevention and making these practices available/accessible to everyone
Medical care is catered to each individual
Five step process to public health’s approach in a community
1 Define the health problem
2 Identify the risk factors associated with the problem
3 Develop and test community level intervention to control or prevent the health of the population
4 Implement interventions to improve the health of the population
5 Monitor those interventions to assess their effectiveness
Three levels to prevention
1 - primary
preventing illness or injury from occurring at all, preventing exposure to risk factors
2 - secondary
minimize the severity of the illness or damage to an injury, prevention once it has already happened
3 - tertiary
minimize disability by providing medical treatments and rehab
The most significant factor in determining the health of a community is
economic status - people of higher income tend to be healthier
population health
Define the health problem
Identify the risk factors associated with the problem
Develop and test community level intervention to control or prevent the health of the population
Implement interventions to improve the health of the population
Monitor those interventions to assess their effectiveness
increased stress causes
increased risk of diabetes and heart disease - AND increased likelihood of developing colds
how does racism affect health
Fundamental property of discrimination
- Higher levels of discrimination is associated with higher levels of incidence in a broad range of diseases from blood pressure to abdominal obesity to breast cancer and heart disease
Effects are observed at a young age
Study of black teens showed higher levels of stress hormones, weight and blood pressure
Discrimination of medical care
- Minorities receive poorer quality of care in medicine (implicit bias and unconscious stereotypes)
health equity
commitment to reduce—and, ultimately, eliminate—disparities in health and in its determinants, including social determinants
health disparity
a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with economic, social, or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health. Avoidable, unnecessary and unjust.
ex: race, gender identity, sexual orientation
examples of health disparities
US infant mortality - 2x as high for black infants compared to white infants
Life expectancy - people with a college degree live longer than people who did not finish high school
determinants of health
smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity, injury
our health is influenced by
our social and physical environments
ex:
economic stability, housing, education, food
why does the government have authority over our public health
10th amendment
“the powers not delegated to the US by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people
they don’t have ultimate responsibility - whatever the federal government doesn’t do, the states are responsible
epidemilogic surveillance
ongoing and systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data essential to the planning, implementation and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those who need to know.
vital statistics
systematically collected statistics on births, deaths, marriages, other life events. Statistics that measure progress, or lack thereof, against disease.
two frequencies of public health
incidence - rate of new cases in a defined population over a defined period of time
prevalence - the total number of cases existing in a defined population at a specific time
case control study
persons who do not have the disease (controls) to seek possible causes or associations. Epidemiologists look back in time and determine exposures.
Much more efficient than cohort studies, they focus on a smaller number of people and can be completed relatively quickly.
The investigator asks all participants the same questions regarding their exposure to factors hypothesized to have caused the disease.
DISEASE MEASURED IN PRESENT BUT EXPOSURE MEASURED IN THE PAST
intervention studies
They are usually undertaken to test a new treatment for a disease, such as a chemotherapy drug for cancer, or a preventive measure, such as a vaccine. Watch and wait to see whether the group of treatment differs from that of the control group.
control gets a placebo
double blind - doctors and patients dont know
cohort study
a study of a group of people (cohort), followed over time to see how some disease or diseases develop. “as they grow up”
observational throughout time
confounding variables
factors associated with exposure that may independently affect the risk of developing the disease
