Module 4

Question 1

health

Answer 1

defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing not merely the absence of disease of infirmity

Question 2

ways to measure health

Answer 2

• Mortality- measures of death
  
  • Morbity: measures of disease
  • Self rated health: self appriasal of health overall or relative to others of the same age
  • Prevelance: number of individuals with a disease in a period of time
    Incidence: number of new cases of a disease in a time period

Question 3

epidemiological transition

Answer 3

• High mortlaity rates from famine, epidemics of infectious disease and malnutrition
  
  • Decline in deaths from infectious disease and famine
    Shift in the leading causes of death from infectious to chronic disease

Question 4

infectious disease

Answer 4

• Rapid onset, short course
  
  • Often single, identifable cause and treatment
  • Medical model and systems built around these
    Influenza, tuberculosis, measles

Question 5

chronic diseases

Answer 5

• Long term illness
  
  • Caused by non-reversible pathology
  • Slow in onset, symptoms may not be recognized as disease
    Cancers, heart disease, diabetes

Question 6

chronic disease vs disability

Answer 6

Chronic disease: disease without a cure
Disability: inability to perform activities of daily living

Question 7

compression of morality theory

Answer 7

• Increased lifepsna will not lead to incresed disability and health care use because of a compression of morbidity in the last years of life
  ○ Human lifespan is fixed and finite
  ○ Prevention and improvements in health care will compress the number of years a person is disabeled into the end of the lifespan
  
  • Critics say people will not gain more healthy years as life expectancy increases but spend more time diabled and use up more resources
    ○ Benefits have been concentrated in people with higher socioeconmic status

Question 8

healthy lifestyles

Answer 8

• Healthy behaviors are actions taken by indidivuals to promote good health and prevent health problems
  
  • Health lifestyle refers to patterns of behaviour an individual engages in based on the choices and options they have availible
    Key healthy lifestyle behaviours include: engaing in regular exersice, not smoking, limiting alcohol, healthy diet, regular check ups, good hygeine and avoiding risking behaviours

Question 9

smoking

Answer 9

• Reduces life expectancy by 7-10 years and is a risk factor for heart attack, cancer, stroke
  
  • Major cause of COPD
  • Smoking rates lowest amongst people who are white and people who have higher levels of education

Question 10

exercise diet and alcohol consumption

Answer 10

• Older adults who exersice have better cardiovascualr health, lower rates of disability, lower mortality rates, and better memory
  
  • Being overweight/obese increases the risk for disability, heart disease, diabetes, and joint problems
  • Blue zones: longetivty research program focused on investigating the characterstics and envrioemtns of the longest lviing populations around the world

Question 11

social determinants of health

Answer 11

• Socioeconmic status
  ○ SES usually measured by classifying people based on their education, occupation and or income, education, occupation
  ○ Most commonly education is used as a proxy due to its stability and link to income and occupation
  ○ Those with lowest SES expereincing lowest health
  
  • Cumulative disadvnatge theory:
    Convergence theory suggests that age acts as a leveller and reduces inequalities

Question 12

social support and health

Answer 12

• Social support linked to positive health outcomes and social isolation has been linked to negative health outcomes
  
  • Lack of social relashonships was eqivilent to smoking as a risk factor for mortality

Question 13

gender ethnicity and health

Answer 13

• Women have longer life expectancies than men but are more likely to experence disability and lower quality of life in later life
  
  • Men have more life threatening chronic diseases at younger ages
  • Women have higher rates of depression while men often cope with their feelings through drinking and drug use
  • Biological theories: differences are due to biological factors
  • Social theories: differences are due to social factors
  • In the U.S. african americans, hispanics and native americans report poorer health than white americans

Question 14

experiences of older adults with the healthcare system

Answer 14

• Some physicians have biases towards older adults
  
  • Physcians view on older adults
    ○ Find older adult treatment to be more complex to treat
    ○ Often not possible to cure older adults
    Can be diffuclt to communicate with older adults