Public Health Flashcards
What is primary prevention?
Preventing a disease form occuring in the first place-eliminates RF contriburting?
List 3 examples of primary prevention?
Vaccines
change4life
5 a day
What is secondary prevention?
detecting a disease inits early or pre-clinical phase to alter its course
List 2 examples of secondary prevention?
all screening programmes (breast, Bowel, cervical cancer)
Heel prick
What is tertiary prevention?
attempting to slow down disease progression + prevent complications of a disease, helping people manage their illness effectively.
List an example of tertiary prevention?
diabetic foot care, attending rehab after a stroke to prevent immobility.
What is the purpose of screening?
identifies seemingly well individuals who may be at risk of a disease, in the hope of catching the disease at its early stage
what is sensitivity?
the proportion of people with the disease who are correctly identified by the screening test.
a ÷ (a + c)
What is specificity?
the proportion of people without the disease who are correctly excluded by the screening test.
d ÷ (d + b)
What is PPV?
the proportion with a positive test result
who actually have the disease. Dependent on underlying prevalence.
a ÷ (a + b)
What is NPV?
the proportion with a negative test result
who do not have the disease. This is lower if the prevalence is higher.
d ÷ (c + d)
List 2 disadvantages of screening?
Exposing well individuals to distressful or harmful diagnostic tests
Overtreatment of disease that may have never caused any problems
Preventative interventions may cause harm to the inividual or population
Reassurance to false negatives patients
What criteria is used fro screening?
Wilson and Junger
List 3 requirements for screning according to the wilson junger criteria?
- condition should be an important health problem
- there should be an accepted tx for patients
- There should be facilities available for dx and tx
- There should be a recognisable latent and early symptomaic stage
- There should be a suitable test for examination
- Test should be acceptable for the population
- the natural hx of disease should be understood
- should be a policy on whom to treat as patients
- cost of screening should be economically balanced
- should be a continuous process, and not just a one off
What is lead time bias?
Screening identifies diseases earlier and so gives the impression that survival is prolonged but in reality survival time is unchanged
What is length time bias?
Diseases with a longer period of presentation are more likely to be detected by screening than ones with a shorter time of presentation.
Describe the prevention paradox.
A preventative measure that brings much benefit to the population often offers little to each participating individual.
Give 4 different types of screening.
Population based.
Opportunistic.
Screening for communicable diseases.
Pre-employment and occupational.
What is the population approach to prevention? Give an example.
Preventative measures delivered on a population wide basis e.g. dietary salt reduction.
What is the high risk approach to prevention? Give an example.
Identifying individuals above a chosen cut-off and treating them. E.g. treating those with high cholesterol to avoid heart disease.
What is a RCT?
Where a population is randomised to either an interventional or a control group. Often these are blind or double-blind trials.
Which type of study follows a population over time to see if they’re exposed to the agent in question and if they develop the disease?
A cohort or incidence study. These are prospective.
Which type of study compares people with a disease to those without a disease for age, sex, habits, class etc?
A case-control study. These are retrospective.
Which type of study looks at the population at a point in time?
A cross-sectional or prevalence study.
Which type of study uses routinely collected population level date to show trends and to generate hypotheses?
An ecological study.
What are the 4 main determinants of health?
Lifestyle.
Access to healthcare.
Genes.
Environment.
Define the following
A) Equity
B) Equality
Equity-Giving people wht they need to acheive equal outcomes (what is fair and just)
Equality- Giving veryone the same rights, oppurtunities, adn resources (equal shares)
Define horizontal equity.
Equal treatment for equal need.
Define vertical equity.
Unequal treatment for unequal need e.g. someone with a common cold would need a different treatment to someone with pneumonia.
Give 2 factors that can affect equity.
- Spatial factors - geographical.
- Social factors - age, gender, class, ethnicity.
What are the 3 domains of public health?
- Health promotion.
- Health protection.
- Improving health services.
Domains of public health: give examples of health promotion.
Health promotion looks at interventions e.g. immunizations, smoking cessation, screening.
Domains of public health: give examples of health protection.
Putting measures in place to control infectious diseases.
Domains of public health: what are the aims of health service improvements?
To ensure that there is delivery of organised, safe and high quality services.
Give 3 types of health behaviour.
- Health Behaviour
- Illness Behaviour
- Sick role behaviour
Define health behaviour.
Health behaviour is aimed at preventing disease e.g. eating healthily.
Define illness behaviour.
Illness behaviour is aimed at seeking remedy e.g. going to the Dr’s.
Define sick role behaviour.
Sick role behaviour is activity aimed at getting better e.g. taking medications.
What are health damaging behaviours?
Health damaging behaviours are often related to mortality e.g. smoking, alcohol, high risk sexual behaviours.
What are health promoting behaviours?
Behaviours that seek and maintain health e.g. exercise, eating healthily, having vaccines.