Final Exam Flashcards
programming
- A metaphor from computing
- Fetal or childhood events may determine a set of predispositions which have implications for future health and function
- You’ve been programmed by your childhood development for certain predispositions
- Instructions are laid down for how future events will unfold
- The implications are not immediately obvious
barker hypothesis
- Low birth weight predisposes the child for serious negative health outcomes in later life, particularly heart disease
- Physiologic underdevelopment early in life is not compensated for by future development
- Related idea that epigenetic markers arising from early life events may have phenotypic consequences through development into adulthood
- Mothers that are poor, smokers, food insecure, etc. are at highest risk
Low Birth Weight and Future Health Events
Poor cardiovascular and respiratory health
Lower cognitive function
Schizophrenia
Susceptibility to stress and emotional disorders
Increased risk of breast cancer
Lower educational attainment, lower income and higher rates of smoking
Childhood and adult obesity (predisposed to low metabolism to store food)
Lower stature
Programming: Neurology
- Early childhood stress may affect brain growth and development, as well as lifetime capacity for cognitive activity and emotional regulation
- Fetal and early childhood nutrition affects brain growth, IQ, and cognition
- Early childhood experiences affect brain development
- Neurons in the amygdala learn fear, anxiety, and aggressive responses through conditioning
- maternal and infant nutrition programs improve chronic diseases and life expectancy
DNA Methylation
- DNA methylation is a biological process that can change the activity of a DNA segment without changing the sequence. When located in a gene promoter, DNA methylation typically acts to repress gene transcription
- Healthy mother reduces DNA methylation
- Unhealthy mothers increase DNA methylation
epigenetic effects
environmental conditions (stress, nutrition, etc) activate or deactivate genes
neural sculpting
- Neural pathways and brain connectivity is shaped by early childhood experience
- neural sculpting occurs mainly in childhood but still occurs into adulthood but not as quick or obvious (stroke → have to redevelop neural pathways)
Thalidomide
drug used in the 70’s to treat nausea in pregnancy, caused long bones not to develop and babies were born deformed → drug affected the bones that were developing at the time the medication was taken
latent effects
- Early life experiences and contexts affect people independently of what happens later
- Lack of development in early childhood will have detrimental impact on overall life-long capabilities, regardless of the quality of care/development provided in school years
- Sits in the background until it comes out later in life (not day to day impact) (cardiovascular risk for low birth weight infants → risk factor for later)
cumulative effects
- The longer one is exposed to negative environment, the worse the health effects
- The more intense a negative event or set of events, the worse the health effects
- The impacts of negative experiences interact, often synergistically, and accumulate over time
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACE)
- If any of the above ACE criteria apply, elevated lifetime rise of mental illness, substance abuse, and chronic disease
- Factors are cumulative, risk rises exponentially with multiple ACE factors
pathway effects
- Early life experiences set the stage for future experiences, which in turn give shape to the subsequent ones. (cyclical, generational)
- A poor start developmentally means a child is ill-prepared to start school → will likely do poorly in school → may become anxious, depressed or a behavioural problem, all of which compound poor performance and contribute to → early school leaving, poor job prospects, low income, bad housing in a bad neighbourhood, etc.
attachment theory
- By the age of 6 months, children develop critical attachment to their caregiver (seen a lot around 2 years old)
- Attached figure provides a safe base from which an infant can “venture forth”
- Attachment failure undermines self-esteem (Stress, Social dysfunction)
early childhood policy
- Canada ranks poorly in childhood development
- Most programs in Canada are very limited in scope and target only high-risk families
- High-quality child care is expensive and difficult to access
- The best strategy would be one of progressive universalism - support for every family with additional support going to those with greater needs
injury
- Injury is a leading cause of death and the major cause of non-congenital disability for teens in Canada (accidents, risky behaviours)
- Young people aged 12–19 have the highest probability of injury (27%)
- Gender differences are present
- Sport-related injury
- Two-thirds of injuries involve falls
- Suicide is a major cause of death for teens in Canada, especially for boys
- Much higher among Indigenous youth
obesity
Childhood experiences may have role in obesity
- Breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding (neither is better)
- Good gut health production in the infant (vaginal birth > C section)
- Early childhood experiences
Canadian and American teens are more likely to be obese even though they are more physically active
Childhood and the Transition to Adulthood: Summary
- The beginning of life has major implications for the rest of the life course
- Most of the disadvantages at birth can be compensated by positive early life experiences
- More support should be provided in Canada to parents and children in their early years
- Early childhood development programs can have stunningly large effects, both immediately and latently, but these are difficult to achieve at large scale
- Government should continue to support and invest in public schools, paying special attention to early reading and literacy programs
- Governments at all levels should be more mindful of the needs of teenagers and young adults
diet and the health of populations
- The availability, affordability, and quality of food are major social determinants of health
- There is a strong link between income, education, and food
- People with lower income rely on low cost, high-energy diet, which is nutrient-poor
- Bread in medieval Europe
- Potato in 19th-century Ireland
Whole country was reliant on potato crops for low cost high energy food
Hardy food, last through the winter (easy to store)
Early 1800’s lots of farmers growing potatoes
Mid 1800’s - fungal infection in potato crop → potato famine
Their other crops were being exported out (low amount of food left for irish people)
Thousands of people died (starvation, disease, malnourishment) - Processed foods, refined carbohydrates and fats in today’s Canada and the US (junk food)
Factors Impacting People’s Choice and Use of Foods
- Stability of income and cost of other necessities (food budget is cut to pay rent)
- Capacity to plan and budget
- Features of home (fridge, oven, microwave, pots and pans, etc.)
- Knowledge and skills (ability to cook, life skills)
- Availability and affordability of foods
- Marketing of food choices (typically targets sugary foods to children)
- Ethnic, cultural, religious and family background (perception of acceptable food)
- Peer pressure, norms, behavioural impact (social network)
- Time and energy (ordering food is less time consuming than cooking)
Canada’s Food Guide
History of Canada’s Food Guide
- Established during WWI
- Nutrition concerns during the Great Depression
- Wartime issuance of Canada Official Food Rules (1942)
- First (less prescriptive) Food Guide issued 1961
- Very strict - prescriptive
- Focused on whole population
- More about conserving food
Recent revisions to Food Guide
- More emphasis on fish, fruit, vegetables
- Food Guide for Indigenous People
- Focused on health
- Plate size breakdown vs number of servings
- More tailored to different backgrounds
- (dairy and meat industries have input in the food guide/public policy → want people to buy their products)
food insecurity vs nutrition insecurity
- Food insecurity - The inability to acquire or consume an adequate diet quality or sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways, or the uncertainty that one will be able to do so (not being able to access any food)
- Nutrition insecurity - Inability to access at all the times the nutrients needed for a healthy and active life (access to nutrient poor food, not healthy food)
- Worst situation regionally is in the Maritimes where nearly 15% of households face food insecurity
- Over one-third of indigenous households face food insecurity
- Approximately 25% of lone parent female households face food insecurity
food banks
- Introduced as short-term stop-gap measure to deal with the fallout from the economic downturn in the early 1980s
- There are over 2332 food banks in Canada supporting 750,000 people (probs more)
Largely accessed by single adult households
On social assistance
⅓ children - Food banks have been criticized because
they were meant to be a stop-gap measure, and lack demonstrated effectiveness - provide a limited amount of food to people who’s real problems are low income and expensive housing
they obscure the issue of food security by creating the illusion of a solution to the problem (allow government to look the other way and ignore issues)
obesity part 2
The lower the woman’s income and education, the higher the probability that she will become obese
- Disordered eating patterns
- Overeating due to food insecurity
- Dieting and bingeing
- Body storing food because it’s not always available → obesity
Contextual factors
- Poor neighbourhoods (less diverse availability of food, low cost processed foods) (really prominent in the US)
- Regional differences in obesity rates in Canada
rising obesity rate suspicions
- Progressively cheaper food, more accessible (meat, pork, highly processed, packaged foods) these foods don’t support a healthy diet alone
- Processed foods readily available, cheap and convenient (energy dense)
- Increased eating in fast-food restaurants/full-service restaurants (high in fat, sugar, salt)
- Portion sizes skyrocketed since 1970s
- Disordered eating – “eating on the fly”, snacking
- Soft drinks
- Cheap ingredients for processed food (high-fructose corn syrups)
- Increased car ownership, reduced walking, built environments (sedentary work)
Can Supplement Compensate for Poor Diet?
- Supplements have been shown to be ineffective to compensate for poor diet
- Exceptions are folate and iron in pregnancy and Vitamin D
- Better nutrition can result from better diet diversity
- Better diet does not necessarily change health outcomes at the individual level (with the exception of the seriously malnourished)
- However, there will be benefits at the population level if Canadians’ diets were to improve
How Much Does Our Diet Matter to Our Health?
- Surprisingly, we have very little evidence suggesting that diet is directly linked to either positive health outcomes or to disease
- Because of genetics and a variety of factors we can’t explicitly say these are the foods you need to eat to not get heart disease
- There are recommendations but no guarantees
- A varied diet is essential to human health
- Eat widely, incorporating as many foods as possible into diet, but not too much
- Don’t binge on any food type
- Fad diets = bad (keto, atkins)
Food, Food Insecurity, Obesity, and Nutrition: Summary
- Compared to other places in the world, people in affluent Liberal regime countries are well nourished and/or over-nourished
- A significant proportion of Canadians (15%) are food insecure
- The rising levels of obesity have been styled an “epidemic”
- The causes of rising levels of obesity are contested
- Current policies aimed to improve food choices are ineffective
- Policies need to be developed that embrace a population-health approach, are multi-factoral, and operate on several different levels of determination
Models of Health
Biomedical Model
- Health is absence of disease
- Host characteristics, environmental variables, health related behaviors
Behavioural Model
- Individual choice
- Individual makes the decisions that impact their health
- Choices depends on what’s available to the individual (limitations)
Contextual Approach
- Taking into consideration the context that the individual lives in
- SDOH
Multi-level Approach
- Individual, micro, macro level
- Individual → community → population
- Political context
- Need for social reform
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commision to Build a Healthier America (2009)
US based
US based
Attributes health to personal choice (behavioural model)
Marmot & Bell (2010) - Fair Society, Health Lives
UK based
In response to Robert Wood Johnson report
Population-level health differences arise from social inequalities (SDOH)
Reducing health inequalities = social justice
Large gaps in income and education create an patterns of advantage and disadvantage
biomedical model
- Conditioned by the marketplace of health care
- Money is made → it is a business
- It is a service and the patient is paying for it
- It is treatment based (not preventative)
- Pharmaceutical sales, advertising
- This is more so in areas where healthcare is more privatized not government regulated (US)
- Illness = money to be made
behavioural model
- You are free to choose what health choices you make
- No interference from the government
- Individuals responsibility to make health choices (good or bad choices)
Ideologies
- Luck versus Hard Work
- What factors external to the individuals control play into social position and access?
- What has got you to the position you are in today?
- Was it luck or all hard work and dedication
- Most times both
- SDOH have to align to put you in a position to attend university, for example
- Some people overcome their situations with hard work
- Cyclical (low income parents → low access to schools → can’t go to university → low income → cycle continues)
neo-liberalism
- Characterized by a) faith in free markets b) suspicion of governments c) low taxes - and low levels of public services
- Government size continue to shrink (fewer people in power)
- Reduction of regulations on corporations/markets (independent decision making) (taxes)
- Every man for himself
solidarity
- Norway, sweden, denmark
- All of society is focusing on the rest of society
- Ensure each person has equal access
- Supporting vulnerable groups
- Better social services, welfare, childcare, healthcare
Globalization and Human Health
Globalization = easy access around the globe
Ease of money movement around the world
Stagnation or reduction in wages for Lower- and Middle-Income
Increase in residential segregation by income
Increase in educational segregation through use of private schools
Cuts to publicly funded programs
Removing regulations on big corporations/markets
Undermining of labor unions
Undermining of employment standards
Reduction in environmental standards
Promotion of global free trade
All leads to class divides
Globalization, Carbon Emissions, and Climate Change
Consumer Culture = Increase in Carbon Emissions
- Always want to buy the next thing
- More carbon is produced to keep up with production of products
Rising Temperatures, Changes in Ice Cover and Weather Patterns
- Impacts food production
- Changes concentration and temperature of ocean (ice melting) → affects habitats of animals
Severe Weather Events
Loss of Arctic Surface
- Changing the celination of the ocean
- Not reflecting the sun anymore → ocean temperatures are rising → atmospheric temperatures rising
Paris climate change agreement
- Looking to reduce climate change at the country level
- Establish expectations for countries to reduce carbon emissions
- US removed themselves in 2019
Canada
- Big cause of emissions is oil and big energy sectors
- Automobiles
- Regulation: transport trucks must be full to be transported (don’t waste gas)
Globalization, Food Security, and Nutrition
2012 Food Crisis
- Cost of production and transport increased due to rising fuel costs
- Fertilizers became more costly
- Concern over oil prices led to US subsidies for biofuel production
Factory Farming
- Large amounts of food at a lower cost
- More fertilizer and pesticides → can contaminate water
- Soil depletion
- High water use
- Large release of CO2 emissions
Distribution and Sales
- Major food distributors and retailers (big boxes stores)
- Difficult for small businesses to keep up (food is cheaper at a big box store than at the farmers market)
Marketing of Foods
- Marketing is highly focused on high profit convenient foods
- Cheap high sugar cereals, pop, chips (easy access foods with little nutritional value)
- Primarily targeted at children
- Placed at eye level in stores → easy access
Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs)
- Norway, sweden (solidarity countries)
- Highly regulated wages and benefits, Standardized working conditions, Shorter working hours, Guaranteed Paid-Leave Provisions and Pensions, Generous
- Unemployment Insurance and Job-Training Benefits (helping you grow in the business/company)
- Flatter health gradient, better overall population health
- Actively address low wages, poor working conditions and unstable employment
- Continuity of income through well-developed unemployment insurance programs
liberal market economies
- Priority of the workplace is consumption and profit
- Flexible Employment – Insecure hours, wages and benefits
- 1/3 of Canadians are employed in shift work – disrupts circadian rhythm (impacts BP, Hormones Levels, Appetite, Blood Sugar levels)
climate change
About 1ºC average warming over the past 100 years; rate has increased rapidly since 1950
A clear trend, not a variation
At least partly, and probably mostly, caused by human activity
CO2 and methane emissions
Deforestation
Implicated in polar seas getting warmer, melting of sea ice (not reflecting heat), fresh water glaciers melting, marine species collapse, unprecedented rates of plant and animal extinction, and extreme weather events
health implications of climate change
- Climate change can affect health in 2 ways:
- By changing the severity or frequency of health problems that are already affected by climate or weather factors (seasonal allergies, asthma, arthritis, diseases that react to changes in weather)
- By creating unprecedented or unanticipated health problems or health threats in places where they have not previously occurred (exposure to health threats)
- Diminished and degraded potable and irrigation water (fresh water availability) - Extreme weather events causing human casualties and widespread damage to homes and infrastructure (eg. hurricanes)
- Fisheries collapse and droughts and floods impacting food supplies
- Rise in infectious diseases from yellow fever, to dengue, to Zika, to chikungunya, to West Nile