Population Health Flashcards
What is an illness vs. a sickness?
Illness - subjective
- The subjective sense of feeling unwell; a person’s experience of their disease ex. tired, malaise, discomfort
Sickness - cultural conceptions
- Socially and culturally held conceptions of health conditions which, in turn, influence how the patient reacts ex. the dread of cancer or the stigma of mental illness
What is the definition of a disease?
Disease - pathology
- Pathological process that may or may not produce symptoms resulting in a patient’s illness
What is the definition of a syndrome?
Syndrome - when we don’t totally understand
- A complex of symptoms that occur together more often than would be expected by chance alone ex. Down syndrome, AIDs, or chronic fatigue syndrome
What is the definition of health?
Health is the extent to which an individual or group is able to realize aspirations and satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living; it is a positive concept, emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities (WHO).
What is wellness?
Wellness is a state of dynamic physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being that enables a person to achieve full potential and an enjoyable life.
What is morbidity?
Morbidity refers to the rate of being diseased or unhealthy within a population (incidence of ill health).
What is mortality?
Mortality - term used for the number of people who have died within a population (incidence of death)
Incidence is useful for studying _______, while prevalence is useful when estimating _________.
Incidence is useful for studying causes, while prevalence is useful when estimating health services needs.
What is prevalence vs. point prevalence?
Prevalence - all existing cases in a fixed time period/population size
Point prevalence - when calculated at a single point in time = all existing cases NOW/population size
Contrast the approaches of population health and public health with the traditional role of physicians in treating indvidual cases of disease.
Population health and public health are concerned with the upstream interventions for health and prevention of disease. This is in contrast to the role of a physician to act downstream in treating individual cases of disease.
Population Health: The approach is to foster individual responsibility for health, while also addressing the underlying social determinants, such as poverty or lack of access to care, that constrain people’s ability to achieve real gains in health.
Public Health: The general focus is on preventing disease and protecting health. It is defined as the organized efforts of society to keep people healthy and prevent injury, illness and premature death.
Note: Individual cases are expressions of underlying patterns within populations, and the causes of disease are to be found in these patterns.
- The health of populations is always changing and is driven by many factors, most of which lay beyond individual control or medical response.
What is the definition of a health inequity?
Health inequity - health differences that are avoidable, unnecessary and unjust
- Unequal distribution of health determinants - particularly institutional, economic and environmental determinants that lie completely outside of an individual’s control - is a majory cause of health inequity
- “unequal distribution of health-damaging experiences is not in any sense a ‘nautral phenomenon’ but is the result of a toxic combination of poor social policies and programs, unfar economic arrangements and bad politics”
What is the single most important determinant of health according to Health Canada?
Income and social status is the single most important determinant of health. Many studies show that health status improves at each step up the income and social hierarchy. As well, societies that are reasonably propserous and have an equitable distribution of wealth have the wealthiest populations, regardless of the amount they spend on health care.
What are Canada’s 12 Determinants of Health?
12 Determinants of Health
- Income and social status
- Education and literacy
- Employment and working conditions
- Social support networks
- Social environments
- Physical environments
- Personal health practices and coping skills
- Health child and development
- Biology and genetic endowment
- Health services
- Gender
- Culture
What is social capital in comparison to social cohesion?
Social captial refers to “features of social life - networks, norms and trust - that enable participants to act together to more effectively pursue shared objectives”.
Social cohesion has been defined as “the quality of social relationships and the existence of trust, mutual obligations and respect in communities or in the wide society that helps to protect people and their health.”
What is meant by the psychosocial approach to the social determinants of health?
Psychosocial Approach to the SDH
- Psychosocial factors are the primary focus
- Associated with the view that people’s perception and experience of personal status in unequal societies lead to stress and poor health
- Cassel argued that stress from the ‘social environment’ alters host susceptibility, affecting neuroendocrine function in ways that increase the organism’s vulnerability to disease
- According to these theorists, the experience of living in social settings of inequality forces people constantly to compare their status, possessions and other life circumstances with those of others, engendering feelings of shame and worthlessness in the disadvantaged, along with chronic stress that undermines health
- Steep hierarchies in income and social status weaken social cohesion, with the disintegration of social bonds and is also seen as negative for health
