L3 Pop. and Public Health Part 1 Flashcards
What is health?
Health is “more than the absence of disease, but is a resource for everyday living” Good health is a resource for social, economic and personal development and an important dimension of quality of life. - living to their full potential
What is public health practice?
It is an approach to maintaining and improving the health of populations that are based on the principles of social justice, attention to human rights and equity, evidence-informed policy and practice, and addressing the underlying determinants of health.
- It places health promotion, health protection,
population health surveillance, and the
prevention of death, disease, injury, and disability
as the central tenets of all related initiatives.
- It also means basing those initiatives on evidence
of what works or shows promise of working.
What are the foundations of public health?
They are the concepts of social justice and health equity, which relate to the social determinants of health.
What is social justice?
It refers to a set of institutions that enable people to lead fulfilling lives and be active contributors to their community. These institutions, among others, include education, health care, and social security.
• Social justice ensures that the population as a whole has equitable access to all public health initiatives implemented to minimize preventable death and disability.
- protected by the charter of rights and freedoms section 7
What is health equity?
It is the absence of preventable differences in health among groups of people, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically.”
Is based on the principle of social justice - so people have equal opportunities to health access
What is the difference in equity and equality?
Equity - tools to achieve the same outcome from different circumstances
Equality - equal tools
Explain the lifestyle approach in attempting to change the behaviors and practices that lead to unhealthy choices.
Health education and encouragement for individuals
to change their behaviors.
1. An individual’s behavioral choices (e.g., diet, activity levels, alcohol and tobacco use) are heavily structured by conditions and circumstances in one’s life and are classic indicators of risk for disease.
2. There is a socioeconomic gradient to health -The wealthy are healthy.
What are the social determinants of health?
As compared to the lifestyle approach, the
SDoH approach examines societal factors (e.g., income, education, etc.) that shape health and create health inequalities AND examines the societal forces that shape the quality and distribution of these societal factors.
• Requires consideration of the political, economic and social forces that shape policy decisions.
Why are some Canadians healthy and some are not?
Health is determined by the complex interactions between individual characteristics and social, economic and physical environments. Lots of evidence tells us that health is improved by focusing on improvements to
these determinants of health.
What are 16 social determinants of health?
-Indigenous ancestry • Disability • Early life • Education • Employment and working conditions • Food security • Gender • Geography • Health care services • Housing • Immigrant status • Income and its distribution • Race • Social safety net • Social exclusion • Unemployment and employment security
Explain income as an SDOH
• Income is a determinant of health in itself but is also a
a determinant of the quality of early life, education,
employment and working conditions, and food
security.
• Income is an exceedingly good predictor of occurrence
and mortality from a variety of diseases.
– Income is a better predictor of health than weight or
physical activity, which are classic health indicators.
• Canadians living in the poorest neighbourhoods are
more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, cancer,
diabetes, and respiratory disease than other
Canadians.
Explain the poverty cycle
…>family in poverty > child grows up in poverty > significantly disadvantaged in education > struggle to get a job > fail to escape the poverty cycle >…
What are the 2 main aspects of poverty?
monetary deprivation, and material deprivation.
What is material deprivation?
What are the outcomes?
Material deprivation is the inability for individuals or households to afford those consumption goods and activities that are typical in a society at a given point in time
• Examples include: afford a holiday, cell phones, brand name clothes, attend sporting activities, event tickets.
-Social exclusion, feelings of shame, poor subjective well-being
What were the results of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study?
What are the 3 types of ACE?
Study findings suggest that certain childhood experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness (heart disease, stroke, and diabetes) and death as well as poor quality of life.
• Some of the worst health and social problems can arise as a consequence of adverse childhood experiences.
- Abuse, neglect, household dysfunction. As the number of ACE’s increase, so does the risk for negative health effects
