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 in its 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.
(True Positive) / (True Positive + False Negative)
What is specificity?
the proportion of people without the disease who are correctly excluded by the screening test.
(True Negative) / (True Negative+ False Positive)
What is PPV (Positive predictive value)?
the proportion with a positive test result
who actually have the disease. Dependent on underlying prevalence.
(True Positive) / (True Positive + False Positive)
What is NPV (Negative predictive value)?
the proportion with a negative test result
who do not have the disease. This is lower if the prevalence is higher.
(True Negative) / (True Negative+ False Negative)
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 successful screening according to the wilson jungner criteria?
IATROGENIC
I- Important problem
A- Available diagnosis and treatment facility
T- Treatable
R- Recognisable latent stage
O- Obvious diagnostic test
G- General public accepted
E- Economically viable
N- Natural history understood
I- Issued agreed policy on who to treat
C- Continuously done
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 observational study uses routinely collected population level data 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 what they need to achieve equal outcomes (what is fair and just)
Equality- Giving everyone the same rights, opportunities, and 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.
What is a meta-analysis?
Multiple studies measuring the same thing, compared to each other to assess overall trends and conclusions.
More accurate answer to the hypothesis and give you more reliable answer to any individual study
Define compliance.
The extent to which a patients behavior coincides with medical advice. It is professionally focused and assumes that the doctor knows best.
Give 3 factors that can effect compliance.
- Side effects of medications.
- Patient perception of risk.
- If the patient is asymptomatic.
- Socioeconomic status.
What is the single greatest cause of illness and premature death in the UK?
smoking
What 3 diseases are smoking related deaths normally due to?
Cancers.
COPD.
CHD.
When does smoking prevalence peak?
In the mid 20s.
Smoking cessation: give 3 symptoms of withdrawal
Difficulty concentrating.
Increased appetite.
Irritability.
Cravings
Anxiety
Insomnia
What are the 5 levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
- Physiological need
- Safety and security
- Love and belonging
- Self-esteem
- Self-actualisation
Define domestic abuse.
Incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16+ who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.
Give 3 examples of domestic abuse.
Emotional abuse.
Physical abuse.
Financial abuse.
Sexual abuse.
Psychological abuse.