Health Priorities CQ1

Question 1

What is epidemiology?

Answer 1

The study of disease in groups through quantitative data

Question 2

What are the measures of epidemiology?

Answer 2

MORTALITY

• Rates of death
• Importance: easily determined objective data to assess a society’s health

INFANT MORTALITY

• Rates of death in first year of life
• Neonatal deaths = first 28 days
• Post neonatal deaths = remainder of first year
• Importance: vital in assessing health of a nation as immune system is very vulnerable and thus demonstrates health of env’t, and also predicts life expectancy

MORBIDITY

• Illness, disease or injury that does not result in death
• Hospital use, doctor visits, medicate statistics or health surveys or reports

LIFE EXPECTANCY

• Length of time a person is expected to live
• Male = 80 years
• Female = 84 years
• Importance: evidence of a nation’s health

Question 3

What does epidemiology tell us?

Answer 3

• Monitor the major causes of sickness and death
• Identifies specific areas of need for intervention strategies
• Determine priority areas for government funding
• Monitor the use of health services and facilities
• Help evaluate the effectiveness of current treatment and prevention programs

Question 4

Who uses epidemiological data?

Answer 4

• Government policy makers
• Manufacturers of health products
• Researchers
• Providers of health services

Question 5

Does epidemiology measure everything about health status?

Answer 5

WHAT IT DOES:
- Identify health needs and allocate healthcare resources accordingly

• Evaluate health behaviours and strategies to control and prevent disease
• Identify and promote behaviours that can improve the health status of the overall population, such as eating less fat and more fibre

WHAT IT DOESN’T:
- Quality of life; people’s level of distress, impairment, disability or handicap. Statistics tell us little about the degree and impact of illness as it is quantitative

• Causes of illness
• Could be biased!

Question 6

How do we identify priority health issues?

Answer 6

SOCIAL JUSTICE PRINCIPLES
Applied for more equitable and positive outcomes can be achieved for those Australians that need it
- Supportive environments (PBS, no smoking)
- Equity (more funding for ATSI)
- Diversity (medicare services in foreign languages)

PRIORITY POPULATION GROUPS
Sub-groups of people with significantly different health statuses

Demonstrates that a health issue affects many different people across the population, and that there is health inequity

COST TO INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY
Applied as a disease is significantly burdensome, and there would be great benefit to addressing it
- Psychical
- Emotional
- Social
- Financial

POTENTIAL FOR EARLY INTERVENTION
The degree to which the disease can be prevented

Applied to ensure that prioritization would be an effective use of money and the biggest return on money spent
Applied to ensure high number of positive health outcomes

PREVALENCE
How many people in population have the disease

Applied as it affect a large portion of the population, thus would be an efficient use of resources and lead to many positive health outcomes for many people

Question 7

Why is it important to priorities health issues?

Answer 7

• There are limited resources (e.g. funding and people) available for improving the health of Australians
• Ensures that resources are allocated appropriately to raise the health status of all Australians and not just those who may be able to afford treatment later in life