Lecture 3 - Politics, Science, and Prevention Flashcards
What is a major expectation of every civilized society??
The living conditions will be basically healthy
What are the 4 basic expectations in a civilized society?
Water is safe to drink
Food is safe to eat
aspirin is really aspirin
medication is safe
Give some reasons as to why people’s lives in the United States are healthier today
clean water, air food
better nutrition
FDA - regulation of products and medication
The term “public health” refers to 2 different but related concepts. What are they??
IMPROVING PEOPLE’S HEALTH
MAINTAINING THAT IMPROVEMENT
People most often look to _____ to take primary responsibility for public health
all levels of the government (state, local, federal)
PUBLIC HEALTH IS ALWAYS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF _______ AND _______
Government and politics
Name 3 roles of the government in public health?
- Sponsor research/education programs
- Law’s regulating people’s behavior
- Laws requiring immunization of school children
PUBLIC HEALTH IS A HUGE SOCIAL ASPECT. Charles winslow said the development of ___________ will ensure every individual has a certain standard of living
SOCIAL MACHINER
“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life…”
-cancer screening
-Drug research
-Physical health
“The sanitation of the environment…”
-clean water
-trash removal
-pollution
“The control of community infections…”
-CDC
-Vaccines
-Safe foods
“education in principles of personal hygiene….”
-School
-Campaigns
“organization of medical services for early diagnosis and prevention…”
-cancer screening
-women’s health initiatives
“development of social machinery…..”
-medicare
-social outreach programs
-HHS
Is winslow’s definition of public health considered valid today?
YES
What are the several key successes of public health
-Life expectancy up
-Infant mortality down
-Cigarette smoking down dramatically
What are several key challenges of public health
increased gov spending
elderly have increased expenses due to disease
mental health, teen pregnancy
Medicine focuses on……
HEALING PATIENTS WHO ARE ILL
Public health focuses on……
preventing illness by sterilizing or blocking risk factors
Contrast achievements of medicine vs public health
medicine - curing a sick patient is easily recognizable
public health cannot point to individuals who have been spared illness because of its efforts
Public health programs save ____ on ______
SAVE MONEY ON MEDICAL COSTS
PUBLIC HEALTH, LIKE MEDICAL PRACTICE, IS BASED ON______
SCIENCE
Public health is much more influenced by ____ than_____
politics than medicine
Even if public health officials know everything about a certain issue, what must happen before the problem is addressed???
A political decision
Public health officials are often impatient with ____
Politics
Public health draws knowledge from 6 general areas…..
- Epidemiology (statistics)
- Biomedical sciences
- Environmental science
- Social science
- Behavioral science
- Toxicology
What is epidemiology?
key science for identifying risk factors, determine if our policies are effective. focuses on human populations starting with an outbreak of disease in a community
Of the 3 strategies, which 2 are concerned with epidemiology?
assessment, assurance
Epidemiology is not only important for understanding the cause of disease, but for……
local issues- finding the source of a food poisoning outbreak
What is the LANGUAGE of epidemiology?
STATISTICS - data collection and analysis
What do governments collect data on?
births, deaths
causes of death
cancer cases
occupational injuries
outbreaks of certain disease
What are the biomedical sciences?
prevention and control of diseases especially those caused by microorganisms. understand them better to figure out how to control the spread.
Development of drugs, procedures
What is toxicology?
utilized by BOTH public health and medicine to identify substances associated with health issues
Environmental health sciences……
prevent spread of disease through air, water, food
What are some challenges associated with environmental health sciences?
new chemicals every year
UV rays
depletion of ozone
Social and behavioral sciences……
people dying because of their own behavior -why do they do this?
With such an extensive outbreak in medical treatments, what has happened to public health??
Medical care is so expensive that it’s eating up all the funds for public health programs
What does HEALTH SCIENCE RESEARCH study?
The effectiveness of the medical care system
Public health’s approach to health problems is a FIVE STEP PROCESS
- DEFINE HEALTH PROBLEM
- IDENTIFY RISK FACTORS
- DEVELOP AND TEST COMMUNITY LEVEL INTERVENTIONS TO CONTROL/PREVENT THE CAUSE
- IMPLEMENT INTERVENTIONS TO IMPROVE HEALTH OF POPULATION
- MONITOR INTERVENTIONS TO ASSESS EFFECTIVENESS
Medical care has shifted to _______focus. Examples?
preventative
Vaccines
Annual checkups
colonoscopy
pap smears
List the 3 levels of prevention
primary
secondary
tertiary
Primary prevention:
seeks to avoid the occurrence of an illness or injury by preventing exposure to risk factors
Secondary prevention:
seeks to minimize the SEVERITY once the event has occurred
Tertiary prevention:
sees to minimize DISABILITY by providing medical care and rehab
List the primary secondary and tertiary preventions in response to smoking
primary - discourage smoking and encourage people to quir
secondary - detect cancer early while still treatable
tertiary - rehab of cancer patients
Chain of causation involves…..
1.Agent
2.Host
3.Environment
Agent—
disease causing bacteria/virus
Host—
A susceptible human being
Environment—
means of transmission by which the agent reaches the host
The goal is to ____the chain of causation
BREAK
Ways to break the chain:
Agent-
Host-
Environment-
Agent-vaccine
Host-Antibiotic
Environment-sanitation
Suicide:
Agent-
Host-
Environment-
Agent-gun
Host-person
Environment-the person’s social environment
