Lessons 1-3 (Midterm 1)

Question 1

Public Health

Answer 1

‘Public health’ focuses on the connection between health and wellness as a collective rather than as an individual. It looks at health from a social perspective rather than just the individual level.

Question 2

Health

Answer 2

WHO defines ‘health’ as “a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.” [NOTE: this is a super broad definition, and the idea of ‘health’ can be more complex than we think]

Question 3

Biomedicine

Answer 3

‘Biomedicine’ thinks about health as an individual. It focuses on cures and treatments AFTER illness has occurred. Additionally, biomedicine approaches tend to be interested in the biology of illness, rather than the social roots.

Question 4

Health in relation to Biomedicine

Answer 4

The body is a machine whose systems and responses are regular and predictable. Therefore, BIOMEDICINE conceptualizes illness as a disruption of bodily systems and HEALTH as a return to a state of bodily order.

Question 5

Paradigm

Answer 5

‘Paradigm’ is a set of basic assumptions about how the universe works which allow you to make sense of a particular phenomenon.

Q: What are public health’s paradigms?
A: Health, wellness, and medicine

Question 6

Paradigm Shifts

Answer 6

Thomas Khun: this idea refers to leaps of thinking during which we collectively move from one set of theories, beliefs, and assumptions about how the world works to another set. These shifts can occur very slowly over time as new forms of knowledge accumulate and come together, or they can occur very quickly.

Question 7

Sanitation

Answer 7

‘Sanitation’ is the process of removing waste and making spaces hygenic

Question 8

Mapping

Answer 8

‘Mapping’ is the use of visual devices to keep track of people and things in a geographical space

Question 9

Miasma

Answer 9

The Miasma Theory claims that bad airs or bad smells (“miasmas”) caused disease. This was central during the dark ages.

Question 10

Surveillance

Answer 10

‘Surveillance’ is the art and science of keeping tabs on individuals or groups in the name of safety and security

Question 11

Germ Theory

Answer 11

The Germ Theory is a belief system that describes some forms of disease as caused by invisible microbes

Question 12

Population

Answer 12

‘Population’ is a group of people defined by shared geography, culture, social class, etc.

Question 13

Morbidity

Answer 13

‘Morbidity’ = illness

Question 14

Mortality

Answer 14

‘Mortality’ = death

Question 15

Three Revolutionary Ideas that have Changed the World

Answer 15

1. The causes of death usually lie not within the body, but outside of it. (Diseases lie within the environment)
2. If the causes of death are present on a large scale, then you have to combat them with large-scale measures (Often require taking a political stance)
3. Quantitative analyses are required, and to determine the effects of interventions on the other hand

Altogether, these 3 ideas form the FOUNDATION on which Public Health is based.

Question 16

Important Paradigm Shifts that have Helped Birth MODERN Public Health

Answer 16

1. The shift from the Miasma Theory of illness to the Germ Theory
2. The shift from seeing illness at the level of the individual to visualizing illness as a collective through revolutionary ideas discussed by Dr. Mackenbach

Question 17

Hippocrates

Answer 17

• Greek healer, “the father of medicine”
• He believed the body to be comprised of four humours which needed to be in balance, and which were impacted by both lifestyle and environment
• He turned medical practice away from magical thinking and toward rational thinking

Question 18

Greeks and Roman

Answer 18

• The Roman’s medical practice was heavily tied to spiritual belief
• They advanced their medical knowledge by taking cues from the Greeks and warfare
• Battlefield medicine gave Roman doctors the opportunity to learn about the body and practice forms of surgical repair
• Romans believed in healing power of bathing and organized their living and city spaces so they had regular resources of water

Question 19

Cholera vibrae

Answer 19

A tiny microbe that causes a fatal gastroenterological illness that finds its home in fecaly – contaminated water resources

Question 20

Handwashing

Answer 20

The life-saving medical intervention pioneered by Ignaz Semmelweis which had enormous impacts of maternal mortality

Question 21

The Broad Street Pump

Answer 21

The common implement that let to a massive outbreak of disease in London 1854