Public Health🦠 Flashcards
What is the Mental Capacity Act?
It applies to adults over the age of 16 and sets out who can take decisions if the patient becomes incapacitated
What is a lasting power of attorney?
The Act allows for a person to appoint an attorney to act on their behalf if they should lose capacity in the future, replacing the current enduring power of attorney.
What is an incidence rate?
Number of new cases of a disease over a specified period of time as a proportion of the population at the start of that period.
IP= (* of new cases/ total population)
What is potential years of life lost?
An estimate of the years an individual would have lived if they had not died prematurely.
What is disability adjusted life years (DALY)?
Number of health years lost due to disability.
DALY=years of life lost+years of life disabled.
Define epigenetics?
The expression of a genome depends on the environment
Define allostasis?
The same as homeostasis. The stability through change of our physiological systems to adapt rapidly to change in environment.
Define allostatic load?
Long-term overtaxation of our physiological systems leading to impaired health (stress)
Define salutogenesis?
Favourable physiological changes secondary to experiences which promote healing and health.
What are the three domains of public health?
- Health improvement
- Health protection
- Improving services
What is the domain of health improvement concerned with?
Societal interventions:
Inequalities
Education
Housing
Employment
Lifestyles
Family/community
Surveillance and monitoring of specific diseases and risk factors
What is the public health domain of health protection concerned with?
Measures to control infectious disease risks and environmental hazards:
Infectious diseases
Chemicals and poisons
Radiation
Emergency repsonse
Environmental health hazards
What is the public health domain of improving services concerned with?
Organisation and delivery of safe, high quality services for prevention, treatment and care:
Clinical effectiveness
Efficiency
Service planning
Audit and evaluation
Clinical governance
Equity
What needs to be done/performed before a health intervention is made?
Health needs assessment
What is a health needs assessment?
- A systematic method for reviewing the health issues facing a population
- Leading to agreed priorities and resource allocation that will improve health and reduce inequalities.
What are the 3 different approaches of health needs assessment?
Epidemiological
Comparative
Corporate
Define need?
Ability to benefit from an intervention
Define demand
What people ask for
Define supply
What is asked for
What is a health need and how is it measured?
- A need for health
- Measured using - mortality, morbidity, socio-demographic measures
What is the high risk approach to prevention?
Aims to identify individuals above a chosen cut-off and treat them
What is malnutrition?
Deficiencies, excesses or imbalances in a person’s intake of energy and/or nutrients