Public Health Flashcards
What are the GMC Duties of a Doctor?
Protect and promote health of patients and public
Provide good standard of practice and care
Recognise and work within limits of competence
Work with colleagues in way that best serves patient’s interests
Treat patients as individuals and respect dignity
What are the 3 domains of Public health?
Health Improvement - Social Interventions aimed at preventing disease, improving health and reducing inequality
Health Protection - controlling infectious diseases and environmental hazards
Health Care - organising and delivering safe and high quality services
What levels can intervention be considered to improve public health?
Ecological (population) Level:
* Ban smoking in public places
Community Level:
* Delivered at local communities such as playgrounds set up for local areas
Individual Level:
* Childhood immunisations.
What are the determinants of health?
PROGRESS:
Place of residence
Race/Ethnicity
Occupation
Gender
Religion
Education
Socio-economic status
Social Capital/resources
What is the health belief model
Health Belief Model (Becker 1974)
- Individuals must believe they are susceptible to the condition
- Must believe in serious consequences
- Must believe taking action reduces risk
- Must believe benefits of actions outweigh costs
Addition of:
- Health Motivation having the ability to change themselves
- Cues to Action which are the things that actually make someone start to change (eg. hit rock bottom, media)
What are the Strengths and Disadvantages of the Health Belief Model?
Strengths
- Can be applied to wide variety of health behaviours
- Cues to action are unique component
- Longest standing model
Disadvantages
- Doesn’t consider emotional influences
- Doesn’t consider repeated (habitual) behaviour
- Other factors may influence the outcome
What is the Theory of Planned Behaviour?
Proposes the the best predictor of behaviour is intention (eg. I intend to give up smoking)
Also looks at peoples attitudes, subjective societal norms, perceived behavioural control and behavioural intention
What are some determinants of Intention in the Theory of Planned Behaviour Model?
- Persons attitude to the behaviour
- Social pressure to undertake behaviour or the Subjective Norms
- Appraisal of the ability to perform the behaviour or their perceived behavioural control
Give examples of how the Theory of Planned Behaviour can by applied to Smoking?
Attitude: I do not think smoking is a good thing
Subjective Norm: Most people who are important to me want me to give up smoking
Perceived Behavioural Control: I believe I have the ability to give up smoking
Behavioural Intention: I intend to give up smoking
What are some Strengths and Disadvantages of the Theory of Planned Behaviour Model?
Strengths
- Can be applied to wide variety of health behaviours
- Useful for predicting intention
- Takes into account importance of social pressures
Disadvantages
- Doesn’t account for emotional influences
- Doesn’t account for hobbies/habits
- No temporal element, direction or causality
- Assumes attitudes can be measured
PC PAM
What is the transtheoretical change model/Stages of Change Model of behavioural change?
- Precontemplation - not ready yet
- Contemplation - thinking about it
- Preparation - getting ready
- Action - Doing it
- Maintenance/relapse - sticking with it
Relapse can occur at any point
How can the Transtheoretical Change model be applied to smoking?
- Precontemplation - no intention of giving up smoking
- Contemplation - beginning to consider giving up
- Preparation - getting ready to quit in the future
- Action - Engaged in giving up smoking now
- Maintenance - Steady non-smoker
What are the Strengths and Disadvantages of the Trans-Theoretical Model of Behavioural Change?
Strengths
- Acknowledges stages
- Accounts for relapse
- Time element
Disadvantages
- Not everyone moves through each stage
- Change may be continuous, not discrete
- Doesn’t account for habits
- Doesn’t account for emotional influences
- Doesn’t consider values e.g., cultural and social factors
What are the structural determinants of illness?
Social Class Material deprivation and poverty unemployment discrimination and racism gender and health
What is the biological Model?
Mind and body are treated separately
The body is like a machine that can be repaired
This privileges the use of technological interventions
It neglects the social and psychological dimensions of disease
Define Morality
Concern with the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong
Define ethics
A system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is good for individuals and society
What is utalitarianism/consequentialism?
An act is evaluated solely in terms of its consequences
maximises good and minimises harm
What is Kantianism/Deontology?
Features of the act determine the worthiness of the act
Following natural laws and rights
What is virtue ethics?
Focus is on the individual doing the action.
An action is only virtuous if the person is genuinely intending to do the right thing
What are the 5 focal virtues?
Compassion Discernment Trustworthiness Integrity Conscientiousness
What are the 4 principles of ethics?
Autonomy - The right to make your own informed decisions.
Beneficence - Always do good
Non-maleficence - Do no harm
Justice - Concerns fair distribution of services
What are used to assess the functional limitations in the elderly population?
Katz ADL (Activities of Daily Living)
IADL
Barthel’s ADL
MMSE
What do the Katz and Barthel’s ADL indexes assess?
An individuals ability to carry out activities of daily living such as:
Dressing
Bathing
Going to the toilet - and urinary and bowl continence
Getting in and out of bed
What does the IADL Index assess?
Instrumental activities of daily living: Use a telephone do laundry go shopping handle finances
What does the MMSE assess?
Immediate and orientation memory
Short term memory
language
What are some key challenges that are faced with an ageing population?
Strains on pension and social security - pensions will have a higher payout
Increased demand for health care
Increased demand for longer-term healthcare
Bigger need for trained health workforce
Ageing workforce
Perversive ageism
What is an acute illness?
A disease of short duration that starts quickly
and has severe symptoms (often can be cured)
What is a Chronic Illness?
A persistent or recurring condition, which
may or may not be severe, often starting gradually with slow
changes (can’t be cured but can be treated)
What is Polypharmacy?
The use of multiple medications or
administration of more medications than are clinically indicated
What is the chain of infection?
A susceptible host causative infectious organism Reservoir (somewhere to spread to) Portal of exit Mode of transmission Portal of entry New susceptible host
What are some protective infection control precautions?
Gloves and aprons and hand hygeine
Correct sharps manipulation
Correct clinical waste and linen handling
What are the different types of transmission?
Direct:
- Contact (eg. STIs)
- Faecal oral route
Indirect:
- Vector born (malaria, dengue)
- Vehicle born (Hep B)
- Airborn (TB)
What is stress?
Stress occurs when the demands made upon an individual are greater than their ability to cope
What is good stress?
Eustress - motivational and helpful
What is bad stress?
Distress - Damaging or harmful
What is the bodies stress response?
● Lungs – increased resp rate
● Blood flow – BP increases, HR increases
● Skeletal muscle – tenses
● Spleen – more RBCs discharged
● Skin – blood flow redirected to muscles and heart
● Mouth – mucous and saliva production decreases, dries
● Immune System – redistribution of WBCs
What is the stress illness model?
An individuals susceptibility to disease or illness is increased when an individual is exposed to stressors which cause strain upon the individual leading to psychological and physiological changes
What is Screening?
the process of identifying unrecognized or asymptomatic conditions or diseases in a population by sorting the apparentely well people who may have a disease from those who do not
What is the main purpose of screening?
Prevention of disease
What are the Wilson Jungner Criteria?
● it should be a serious health problem
● the aetiology should be well understood
● should be a detectable early stage
● should be an accepted treatment for the disease
● facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available
● there can’t be an unmanageable extra clinical workload
● a suitable test should be devised for the early stage
● the test should be acceptable for the patients
● intervals for repeating the test should be determined
● there should be an agreed policy on whom to treat
● the cost should be balanced against the benefits
What is Primary Prevention?
Prevention of the disease occurring
eg. Vaccinations, Couch to 5k
What is Secondary Prevention
Early detection of disease in order to alter the course of the disease and maximise the chances of a complete recovery
Screening Programmes
What is Tertiary Prevention?
Preventing complications of the disease by slowing progression.
eg. Diabetic control/eye screening
Give some examples of Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Prevention for Type 2 Diabetes
Primary - reduce risk factors by losing weight, having a balanced diet, increasing physical exercise
Secondary - Medications such as metformin, bariatric surgery to treat the condition and prevent progression
Tertiary - Population screening - diabetic eye screening
What is an error?
Any preventable event that may cause or lead to patient harm
What are the possible outcomes of errors?
An Adverse Event
A Near Miss
What are the different types of error?
Errors of Omission
Errors of Commission
Errors of Negligence
What are errors of Omission
When the required action is delayed or not taken
What are errors of Commission?
When the wrong action is taken
What are errors of Negligence?
When the actions, omissions or commissions do not meet the standard of an ordinary skilled person professing leading to harm of a patient
How can errors be managed?
At an individual level or organisational level
What is individual error management?
Errors are the products of wayward mental processes of individual people in the system
What is organisational error management?
What model can be applied to orgaisational error management?
Adverse events are the product of many causal factors (swiss cheese model) and so the whole system is to blame.
Define Prevalence?
The proportion of a population that are found to have the disease at one point in time
Define Incidence?
The number of new cases of a a disease arising within a specified time period
When can you breach confidentiality?
When required by law
When the patient provides consent
When it is in the public interest
What are the criteria for disclosure when breaching confidentiality?
Anonymous Patients consent Kept to a necessary minimum Meets current law After death confidentiality continues
How would you approach a patient about quitting smoking?
3 As
Ask
Advice
Assist
Give 4 examples of UK screening programmes
Antenatal and Newborn screening
Diabetic Eye screening
Cervical Screening (25-49 every 3 years and 50-70 every 5 years)
Breast screening (>50 every 3 years)
Bowel Cancer (>60 every 2 years)
Abdominal Aneurysm Screening (men >65 yrs self refer)
What is Sensitivity?
What is the equation to work it out?
The proportion of people with the disease who are correctly identified by the screening test
(TP / TP + FN)
What is Specificity?
What is the equation to work it out?
The proportion of people without the disease who are correctly excluded by the screening test.
(TN / FP +TN)
What is the Positive Predictive Value?
The proportion of people correctly identified as having the disease
(TP / TP + FP)
What is the Negative Predictive Value?
The proportion of people correctly identified as not having the disease
(TN / FN + TN)
What is the role of the doctor in combating health inequalities?
Changing systems Changing perspectives changing education working hollistically advocating on the social determinants of health
What are the social determinants of health?
Societal factors which influence an individuals health
What are the social determinants of health based on?
Fair society and healthy lives - the marmot report (2010)
Give some examples of social determinants of health
Education housing income access to care occupation
Why are social determinants of health important?
Health problems are worse in more unequal societies
Above a certain level, health ceases to improve in proportional and income disparities within a country affect health
Despite equal access to healthcare in the UK, health outcomes are not equal within society.
What is the Black Report?
what did it investigate
What were the outcomes?
From 1980 comissioned in 1977
Investigates health inequalities, to identify the extent and explore the causes
Stated that health inequalities are affected by:
- Material - environmental causes
- Artifact - there are not inequalities, it is how it is measured
- Cultural/behavioral - poorer people behave in unhealthy ways
- Selection - sick people sink socioeconomically
What is the Marmot Report?
From 2010
Central priniciple is proportionate universalism
Health inequalities are a matter of faireness and social justice
There is a social gradient in health - the lower a persons social position the worse their health
Action should focus on reducing the gradiant in health.
What is proportionate Universalism?
central part of the Marmot report
Only focusing on the most disadvantaged will not reduce health inequalities
Any action taken should be available to anyone but:
This means that universal policies (accessible to everyone) should be implemented, but proportional to the level of disadvantage.
What health inequalties require action on and are thus recommendations from the Marmot Report?
- Give every child the best start in life
- Enable all children, young people and adults to maximise their capabilities and have control over their lives
- Create fair employment and good work for all
- Ensure health standard of living for all
- Create and develop healthy and sustainable places and communities
- Strengthen the role and impact of ill health prevention
What is nudge theory?
Changing the environment to make the healthy option the easiest option
What are the millennium development goals?
- Eradicate Poverty and Hunger
- Universal Primary Education
- Gender equality
- reduce child mortality
- improve maternal Health
- Combat Malaria and HIV and other diseases
- Ensure environmental sustainability.
- Develop global partnerships for development
Define Probability
How likely an event is to happen
What are Odds?
How likely an event is to happen compared to not happening
Number of people with an event / Number of people without an event.
eg. If 30 smokers develop lung cancer and 70 do not, while 10 non-smokers develop lung cancer and 90 do not:
Odds in smokers = 30/70 = 0.43
Odds in non-smokers = 10/90 = 0.11
Define odds Ratio
The odds ratio compares the odds of an event occurring in one group to the odds of it occurring in another group.
It is most often used in case-control studies, where it’s not possible to directly measure risk because we are looking at odds instead of probabilities.
How is an Odds Ratio calculated, interpreted and what does it mean?
OR = Odds of event in exposed group / Odds of event in unexposed group
where
Odds = No. of people with event / No. of people without event.
Interpretation:
- OR > 1: The event is more likely in the exposed group.
- OR = 1: The odds of the event are the same in both groups (no association).
- OR < 1: The event is less likely in the exposed group.
Example:
If 30 smokers develop lung cancer and 70 do not, while 10 non-smokers develop lung cancer and 90 do not:
- Odds in smokers = 30/70 = 0.43
- Odds in non-smokers = 10/90 = 0.11
- OR = 0.43/0.11 ≈ 4
This means that the odds of developing lung cancer are 4 times higher in smokers compared to non-smokers.
Define Risk
How is it calculated?
Risk refers to the probability or likelihood that an event will occur over a certain period.
Risk = Number of individuals with event / Total number of people at risk
eg. If 10 out of 100 people develop a disease, the risk is 10/100 = 0.10 or 10%.
Define Absolute Risk
Give an example
Absolute risk is simply the actual risk of developing a disease or outcome in a given population over a specific time period.
It describes the incidence rate of an event in a particular group.
eg. If in a study, 5 out of 100 people who smoke develop lung cancer, the absolute risk of lung cancer for smokers is 5%.
Define Relative Risk
Relative risk compares the risk of an outcome between two groups: one that is exposed to a factor and one that is not.
It tells you how many times more (or less) likely the event is to occur in the exposed group compared to the unexposed group.
How do you calculate relative risk, how is it interpreted and what does it mean?
Relative Risk (RR) = Risk in exposed group / risk in unexposed group
Interpretation:
- RR > 1: The event is more likely in the exposed group.
- RR = 1: The event is equally likely in both groups (no association).
- RR < 1: The event is less likely in the exposed group.
Example:
If the risk of developing lung cancer is 10% for smokers and 2% for non-smokers, then:
RR = 0.10 / 0.02 = 5
This means that smokers are 5 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared to non-smokers.
When would you use:
- Relative risk
- Odds ratio
- Absolute Risk
- Risk
Relative Risk is typically used in cohort studies where the incidence of an outcome in both exposed and unexposed groups can be directly measured.
Odds Ratio is most often used in case-control studies where direct measurement of incidence is not possible, but odds can be calculated.
Absolute Risk is useful for providing real-world context of how common a condition is in a population.
Risk gives a general understanding of the likelihood of an event in a population and is a fundamental concept in calculating absolute risk.
What is absolute risk reduction?
ARR is the difference between the risk (probability) of an event occurring in the control group and the risk of the event occurring in the treatment or intervention group.
It helps to show how much the treatment reduces the risk of an outcome compared to not receiving the treatment.
What is the calculation of absolute risk reduction, and give an example?
ARR = Risk in control group - Risk in treatment Group
Where risk in both control and treatment group is the percentage of individuals who experience outcome respectively.
Example:
Imagine a clinical trial testing a new drug to prevent heart attacks:
- Risk of heart attack in the control group (without drug): 10% (0.10)
- Risk of heart attack in the treatment group (with drug): 6% (0.06)
- ARR = 0.10 - 0.06 = 0.04 or 4%.
This means that the new drug reduces the absolute risk of having a heart attack by 4 percentage points compared to not taking the drug.
Therefore: for every 100 people taking the new drug, 4 fewer people would have a heart attack compared to those not taking the drug.
What is number needed to treat
Derived from ARR that indicates how many people need to receive a treatment to prevent one additional adverse event.
NNT = 1 / ARR
Example:
If a new drug reduces the risk of a MI by 4% (ARR=0.04) then the NNT is 1/0.04 = 25
This means that 25 people need to be treated with the new drug to prevent one heart attack.
1/absolute risk reduction
What are confidence intervals?
The range of values that are believed to contain the true parameter value
What are confounding variables?
effects of 2 or more variables on one another
What are some types of screening?
Population-based
Oppotunistic
Screening for Communicable diseases
Pre-employment
opportunistic
What types of bias are screening tests affected by?
Selection bias
Lead time bias
Length time bias
What is Selection Bias?
The people who choose to participate in screening programmes may be different from those who don’t; proper randomisation is not achieved.
What is Lead time bias
Screening identifies diseases earlier and therefore gives the impression that survival is prolonged but survival time is actually 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.
Give some general examples of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Prevention
Primary - risk factor awareness, immunisations
Secondary - Screening, reducing impact of early-stage disease
Tertiary - Medications to prevent progression, Rehabilitation
What is the hierarchy of the study designs pyramid?
Top: Systematic reviews + meta-analysis Clinical Trials (RTCs) Observational studies (Cohort, Cross-sectional, Case-control) Case Reports / Case series Anecdotal findings, opinions, or ideas Bottom
What are the types of descriptive observational studies?
Individuals - Case report / Case series
Populations - Ecological study, Cross-sectional study
What are the types of analytical observational studies?
Cross-sectional
Case-Control
Cohort
What is the Bradford-Hill Criteria?
The minimum set of conditions necessary to provide adequate evidence of a causal relationship
What are some methods of collecting qualitative data?
Interviews,
Focus groups
Observation
What is the concept of medicalisation?
When aspects of normal life become the focus of medicine and intervention, medical problems/conditions are thus created.
What are the 3 main behaviours relating to health and what do they mean?
Health behaviour - Behaviour aimed at preventing disease (eg. eating healthily)
Illness behaviour - Behaviour aimed at seeking a remedy (eg. going to the doctor)
Sick role behaviour - Behaviour aimed at getting well (eg. taking prescribed medications)
What can health behaviours be?
Health Damaging - eg. smoking
Health Promoting - eg. exercise
Why is it important to understand health behaviours?
For adequate measures in disease prevention
For assessing where funding should be aimed
For understanding where interventions are best placed (at individual and population-based levels)
Give some examples of health promotion campaigns
Change 4 life Movember Dry January Screening Promotion F.A.S.T
What is unrealistic optimism?
When individuals continue to practice health-damaging behaviours due to inaccurate perception of risk and susceptibility
What are some perceptions of risk influenced by?
- Lack of personal experience with a problem
- Belief that preventable by personal action
- Belief that if not happened by now then it is not likely too
- Belief that the problem is infrequent.
What are some examples of theories of behavioural change?
Health belief model
Theory of planned behaviour
Transtheoretical model
Nudging
What factors are important to consider when promoting behaviour change?
How personality and behaviour interact
Assessment of risk perception
chan ging societal norms
What is the WHO definition of health?
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
What are some social influences on health?
Life expectancy decreases as social class decreases Gaps between upper and lower class are rising
What determines population health?
The extent of income division within a society. Therefore more unequal societies have worse health
What is Sociology?
The study of social relations (bonds between people or groups of people) and social processes. It is the measure of social interdependencies.
What are the social roles of a sick person?
Exempt from normal social roles
not responsible for their condition
should try to get well
should seek help from and co-operate with the medical profession
What is Iatrogenesis?
The unintended adverse effects of a therapeutic intervention.
They can be clinical, social or cultural
What is the effect of prevalence of a disease on screening results?
A high disease prevalence would mean the incidence of false positives falls. The positive predictive value therefore increases and the negative predictive value would decrease
What are some benefits to screening?
Prevent suffering
early identification is beneficial
early treatment is cheaper and often more effective
Patient satisfaction tends to be high
What are some negatives to screening?
Damage caused by false positives and false negatives
Adverse effects of screening tools on healthy individuals
Personal choice is compromised