Module 1-2 Flashcards
What is Public Health
Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of families and communities through the promotion of healthy lifestyles, research for disease and injury prevention, and detection and control of infectious diseases.
What is Population Health
Health of a population defined as more than one individual that share one or more common characteristics. Community and population health programs may be utilized to target similar health outcomes, yet their strategies for implementation often differ.
What is “Burden of Disease”
The impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, mortality, morbidity, and other indicators
What are DALYS and how are they calculated?
One Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY) equals one lost year of healthy life. It comprises two measures: Dying early measured in years of life lost (YLLs) and years lived with disability (YLDs). Added together, they = DALYS
What are the goals of public health?
Reduce mortality and lower morbidity
improve quality of life/lower the negative impacts of disease and illness
continuously assess and monitor health outcomes and the drivers of harm
generate evidence-based policies to improve the health of the population
address disparities in outcomes and access
provide the services that have the highest probability of positively impacting health outcomes
Public Health is (ethical framework)
- a collective good
- primarily focused on prevention
- often reliant on government action for its promotion
- intrinsically outcome oriented
Justifications for Public Health Intervention
- Overall benefit
- Collective action and efficiency
- Fairness in the distribution of burdens
- Prevention of harm
- Paternalism
What are the two broad categories of public health interventions
Educational and environmental
Educational Interventions
Aim to change an individual’s behaviors. They are designed to change the knowledge, beliefs, and predisposing psychological
and social factors that lead individuals to engage in unhealthy behaviors.
Environmental Interventions
Encourage, require, or
reinforce behaviors that are either beneficial or harmful to health
What are the three harms of public health interventions aimed at chronic disease?
Stigmatization
Opportunity cost: the implementation of one intervention may sacrifice others
Infringement on individual liberties
What is Public Health Law
The study of the legal powers and duties of the state in collaboration with its partners, to ensure the conditions for people to be healthy, and of the limitations on the power of the state to constrain for the common good the autonomy, privacy, liberty, proprietary, or other legally protected interests of individuals.
What are the three categories of public health law
Laws establishing public health systems’ infrastructure and authority
Laws designed to improve specific health outcomes
Laws with an incidental public health effect
What is a Primary Legal Intervention
Efforts designed to prevent illness or injury, such as mandating vaccination before school entry to control vaccine-preventable diseases
What is Secondary Legal Intervention
Secondary legal interventions are intended to identify public health problems at an early stage to minimize their negative effects
What is Tertiary Legal Intervention
Tertiary legal interventions are employed to reduce or remediate harm from illness or injury that has
occurred.
What is stewardship
Ethically conscientious governance
What is the participation model of accountability
Maintains that all those who are affected by the power-wielders’ actions are entitled to hold them accountable
What is the delegation model of accountability
Maintians that tose who entrust the power-wielders with certain powers hold them accountable, such as when national governments delegate certain health-related work to the WHO
What are the six components of an Ethical Framework for Public Health (Kass)
- What are the public health goals of the proposed program
- How effective is the program in achieving its stated goals
- What are the known or potential burdens of the programs
- Can burdens be minimized? Are there alternative approaches?
- Is the program implemented fairly
- How can the benefits and burdens of a program be fairly balanced
What did the IOM 1988 Report do to establish a structure and foundation for public health leadership?
Defining Public Health’s Mission: The report redefined the core functions of public health as assessment, policy development, and assurance. This clarified the role of public health and highlighted the necessity of equipping public health professionals with the skills to lead these functions effectively.
Emphasis on Leadership: Recognizing leadership as a cornerstone for public health success, the report called for enhanced efforts to cultivate leaders who could address complex health challenges, advocate for policy changes, and work across sectors to achieve health goals.
Workforce Training and Development: The report stressed the importance of education and ongoing professional development for public health practitioners. It advocated for investments in academic public health training programs and partnerships with academic institutions to prepare future leaders.
Vision for the Future: It highlighted a vision of public health that extended beyond traditional health departments, integrating other sectors to address broader determinants of health. This required leaders to adopt innovative, interdisciplinary approaches.
Infrastructure and Resources: The IOM emphasized the need for adequate resources and infrastructure to support a trained and effective workforce capable of meeting public health challenges.
Define Public Health Leadership
It is the ability to inspire and guide individuals, organizations, and communities toward achieving the shared goal of improving the health and well-being of populations. Unlike leadership in other sectors, public health leadership often requires balancing complex, competing priorities, addressing health inequities, and fostering collaboration across diverse disciplines and stakeholders.
What are the skills a Public Health leader needs to have to be successful?
Strategic Thinking: The ability to understand the “big picture,” identify emerging public health trends, and develop long-term goals.
Communication: Strong skills in clear, transparent, and persuasive communication to engage diverse audiences, build trust, and advocate for public health policies.
Collaboration and Partnership Building: The ability to work across sectors and build coalitions that unite health systems, communities, and stakeholders around common objectives.
Adaptability and Resilience: The capacity to navigate uncertainty, respond to crises (e.g., pandemics), and adapt strategies as needed.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Proficiency in analyzing and using data to inform policies, allocate resources effectively, and evaluate interventions.
Political Savvy: An understanding of public policy and political systems to effectively advocate for and implement change.
Ethical Decision Making: The ability to balance competing interests and prioritize social justice and health equity.
What values does a public health leader need to display?
Equity: A commitment to addressing disparities and improving the health of underserved and vulnerable populations.
Social Responsibility: Upholding the principle of acting in the public’s interest and for the greater good.
Inclusivity: Respecting and incorporating diverse perspectives and lived experiences into public health initiatives.
Transparency: Building trust through open and honest communication.
Innovation: Encouraging creativity and novel solutions to address evolving public health challenges.
What is utiliarianism
The theory that the sole justification for an act is the outcome or result, and that the right action or policy is the one that maximizes the particular good or benefit that is sought.
Deontology
The theory that what makes an act right are the intrinsic ethical features of the act rather than the outcome or the result. Deontological theory is that we have duties toward others that prohibit certain acts regardless of the good consequences those acts could yield.
What is “Respect for Persons”
Respect for persons incorporates two ethical components: first, that individuals should be treated as autonomous, and second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection.
Beneficence
The act of maximizing efforts to secure an individual’s well-being. This generally includes 1. do not harm and 2. maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms.
What is Justice
It is understood as “fairness in distribution” or “what is deserved.” An injustice occurs when some benefit to which a person is entitled is denied without good reason or when some burden is imposed unduly. In the context of public health, “social justice” is often central as a principle and many view justice as the moral foundation of public health.
Informed Consent
The act of making a decision based on three components: information, comprehension, and voluntariness. Respect of persons requires that individuals, to the degree capable, be given the opportunity to choose what shall or shall not happen to them.
Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905)
supports state public health
authority, while simultaneously requiring substantial justification to infringe on individual liberty interests
What is Population Health Science
Population health science provides us with the science and tells us what we need to know to understand what it is that causes health so that then, in public health, we can
intervene to make populations better.
