Public Health Flashcards
What are the 3 domains of public health?
Health improvement, health protection, health care
Examples of health improvement?
Concerned with societal interventions (not primarily delivered through health services) aimed at preventing disease, promoting health, and reducing inequalities
Education, employment, housing
Examples of health protection?
Concerned with measures to control infectious disease risks and environmental hazards
Radiation, immunisation, environment, emergency response
Examples of health care?
Concerned with the organisation and delivery of safe, high quality services for prevention, treatment, and care
Clinical effectiveness, efficiency, audit, clinical guidelines
Determinants of health
PROGRESS
Place of residence
Race
Occupation
Gender
Religion
Education
Socioeconomic status
Social Capital
What are the 3 Health Psychology Behaviours?
Health Behaviour, Illness Behaviour, Sick role Behaviour
What is Health behaviour?
behaviour aimed to prevent disease e.g. eating healthy
What is Illness behaviour?
behaviour aimed to seek remedy e.g. going to a doctor
What is sick role behaviour?
behaviour aimed at getting well e.g. taking tablets and rest
What is the medication adherence in developed countries (WHO)?
50%
Intervention at population/ecological level
Health promotion – process of enabling people to exert control over their health
- Awareness campaigns e.g. 5 a day and every mid matters
- Screening and immunisations
- Clean Air Act
Intervention at community level
social and community networks, eg. local sports hubs, improved alcoholic referrals
Intervention at individual level
Patient-centred approach – care responsive to individual needs, eg. vaccinations, lifestyle
What is unrealistic optimism?
“Individuals continue to practice health damaging behaviours due to inacurrate perceptions of RISK and SUSCEPTABILITY.”
What 4 factors affect Perception of Risk?
- Lack of personal experience with the problem
- Belief that the problem is preventable by personal action
- Belief that if its not happened by not, its not likely to
- Believe that the problem is infrequent
Behavioural Change: What is the Health Belief Model?
Perceived barriers have been demonstrated to be the most important factor for addressing behaviour change in patients
Individuals will change if they:
- Believe they are susceptible to the condition in question (e.g. heart disease)
- Believe that it has serious consequences
- Believe that taking action reduces susceptibility
- Believe that the benefits of taking action outweigh the costs
Critique of Health Belief Model
Good:
Can be applied to wide variety of health behaviours
‘Cues to action’ is a unique component of this model
Critique:
▪ Does not consider outcome expectancy or self-efficacy
▪ Does not consider influence of emotions and behaviour
▪ Does not differentiate between first time and repeat behaviour
Behavioural Change: What is Theory of Planned Behaviour?
The best predictor of behaviour change = INTENTION
a. Intention is determined by:
1. Personal attitude to the behaviour
2. Social pressure to change behaviour (social norm)
3. Person’s perceived behavioural control
eg.
1. Attitude – I do not think smoking is a good thing
2. Subjective Norm – most people who are important to me want me to give up smoking
3. Perceived Behavioural Control – I believe I have the ability to give up smoking
4. Behavioural Intention – I intend to give up smoking
Critique of Theory of Planned Behaviour
Good
Takes into account importance of social stressors/influences and perceived control
Critique
▪ Lacks temporal element or lack of direction and causality
▪ Doesn’t take into account emotions
▪ Doesn’t explain the 3 factors interact to determine intention
▪ Doesn’t take into account habits and routines
Behavioural Change: What is the Stages of Change/Trans-theoretical model?
Pre contemplation > Contemplation > Preparation > Action > Maintenance (can be reversed) PC PAM, good because can account for relapse
Examines the process of change, rather than factors that determine behaviour
Allows for interventions to be tailored to the individual according towhat stage they are at
Critique of Stages of Change/Transtheoretical model
Critique
▪ Not all people move through every stage linearly
▪ Change might operate on a continuum rather than discrete stages
▪ Doesn’t take into account habits, culture, social and economics
Other Behavioural Change models
- Social norms theory
- Motivational interviewing
- Social marketing
- Nudging (choice architecture) e.g. fruits and veg near the till
- Financial incentives
Other Behavioural Change things to consider
- Impact of personality traits on health behaviour
- Enjoyment and motivation
- Assessment of risk perception
- Impact of past behaviour/habit
- Automatic influences on health behaviour
- Predictors of maintenance of health behaviours
- Social environment
What are the 4 determinants of health?
Genes, lifestyle, environment, healthcare
Materialist theory
Focuses on the socioeconomic factors, resources, and material conditions that contribute to health disparities.
Lifecourse theory
The Lifecourse theory explains how adverse health events occur more frequently in those individuals who have already had critical periods of ill health in their life.
Psychosocial theory
The psychosocial theory focuses on how individual and social factors, including psychological well-being, social support, and cultural factors, play a significant role in shaping health
What is horizontal equity?
Equal treatment for equal need e.g. individuals with pneumonia should all be treated equally
What is vertical equity?
unequal treatment for unequal need e.g. patients with the cold and pneumonia should be treated differently
What is equity and equality?
Equity: What is fair and just
Equality: Everyone has equal share
Reasons for the health inequalities established in the Black Report (1980)?
Black Report showed that socioeconomic factors affected health (mortality, life expectancy, chronic illness)
Explanations for the inequalities: (hypothesises why)
Artefact: data inaccuracies
Health or social selection: people in poor health moved down the social hierarchy (less support)
Materialist/structuralist: role of income, housing, education, and working conditions
Cultural/behavioural: lifestyle choices
What is health needs assesssment?
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 4 health care needs?
Need = ability to benefit from an intervention
Demand =what people ask for
Supply = what we actually provide
- Felt need – individual perceptions of variation form normal health
- Expressed need – individual seeks helps to overcome variation in normal health (demand)
- Normative need – professional defines intervention appropriate for the expressed need
- Comparative need – comparison between severity, range of interventions and cost
3 approaches to health needs assessment
Epidemiological, Corporate, Comparative
What is epidemiological approach?
Considers the epidemiology of the condition, current service provision, and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions and services
- Disease incidence and prevalence
- Morbidity & mortality
- Life expectancy
- Data is from: disease registry, hospital admissions, GP databases, mortality data, primary data collection
Advantages and Disadvantages of Epidemiology Approach?
Advantages
- Uses existing data
- Provides data on disease incidence/mortality/morbidity etc
- Can evaluate services by trends over time
Disadvantages
- Quality of data variable
- Data collected may not be the data required
- Does not consider the felt needs or opinions/experiences of the people affected
What is corporate approach?
- Asking the local population what their health needs are
- Use of focus groups, interviews and public meetings
- Wide variety of stakeholder e.g. teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers, charity works, local businesses, council workers and politicians
Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporate Approach?
Advantages
- Based on the felt and expressed needs of the population in question
- Recognises the detailed knowledge and experience of those working with the population
- Takes into account wide range of views
Disadvantages
- Difficult to distinguish ‘need’ from ‘demand’
- Groups may have vested interests “stakeholder bias”
- May be influenced by political agendas
What is comparative approach?
- Compare the needs/provision of healthcare in one population with another
- Can be spatial (e.g. different towns) or social (e.g. two age groups in the same town)
Advantages and Disadvantages of Comparative Approach?
Advantages:
- Quick and cheap if data available
- Indicates whether health or services provision is better/worse than comparable areas (gives a measure of relative performance)
Disadvantages:
- May be difficult to find comparable population
- Data may not be available/high quality
- May not yield what the most appropriate level (e.g. of provision or utilisation) should be
What are the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
(down to up) PSLES
- Physiological: breathe, food, water, sleep, poo
- Safety: employment, health, property
- Love/Belonging: family, friends, sex
- Esteem: self esteem, confidence, respect
- Self-actualisation: (reach full potential) creative, problem solving, morality
What are the resouce allocation methods?
Egalitarian, Maximising, Liberatarian
What is the egalitarian method?
Provide all care that is necessary and required for everyone (A: equal/fair, D: economically restricted)
What is the maximising method?
Based solely on consequences (A: resources allocated to most in need people, D: those with less need get nothing)
What is libertarian method?
Each individual is responsible for their own health (A: patient may be more engaged since its their own responsibility, D: not all diseases are self-inflicted)
Define evaluation of health services
assessment of whether a service achieves its objectives
Donabedian’s framework of health service evaluation:
- Structure - what actually is the service, examine the provision of facilities and staff available e.g. how many heart surgeons there are/number of hospital beds
- Process – how does the process work, what is done for and to a patient or a population, and how well, eg. time taken from diagnosis to treatment
- Outcome – 5 Ds = death, disease, disability, discomfort, dissatisfaction/ QOL, complications, reccurence
Denominator + Numerator
Denominator: The total population eligible for a specific process (e.g., all patients diagnosed with a particular condition).
Numerator: The subset of this population that received the treatment within the recommended time frame.
Issues with health outcomes
▪ Link between health service and health outcome can be difficult to confirm
▪ Time lag between service and outcome may be long
▪ Large sample sizes may be needed
▪ Data may not be available or have a problem with it (CART =
completeness, accuracy, relevance, timeliness)
Maxwell’s Dimensions of Quality of health care:
(3Es and 3As)
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency
- Equity
- Acceptability
- Accessibility
- Appropriateness
Wright’s Matrix
Ties Maxwell’s dimensions and Donbedian approach together
Eg. structure + accessibility = pushchair access
process + effectiveness = only efficient tests included
Define epidemiology:
The study of the frequency, distribution and determinants of diseases and health-related states in populations in order to prevent and control disease.
Define incidence
Number of new cases in a population in period of time
Incidence = (number of new cases) / (number of people x time period)
Define prevalence
Number of existing cases in a population at a point in time
Prevalence = (Incidence) x (disease duration)
Attributable risk
Rate of disease in the exposed that may be attributed to exposure
incidence in exposed minus incidence in unexposed.
Example:
- Incidence of cancer in smokers, 1/1000 person-years
- Incidence of cancer in non-smokers, 0.05/1000 person-years
– Attributable risk = 0.95/1000 person-years (difference)
– Relative risk = 20 (ratio, no units)
Relative risk
Ratio of risk of disease in the exposed relative to the risk in the unexposed, has no units (is a ratio)
RR = (incidence in exposed/ incidence in unexposed)
Relative Risk Reduction = (1 - Relative Risk)
Absolute risk
Absolute risk aka incidence (eg. 4 per 1000 people per year): Likelihood of a particular event occurring in a specific population over a defined period, has units
Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR) = (Incidence in Placebo - Incidence in Treatment)
Numbers needed to treat = (1/ARR)
Standard Deviations
68.3% of values lie within 1 SD of the mean
95.4% of values lie within 2 SD of the mean
99.7% of values lie within 3 SD of the mean
Define bias
a systemic deviation from the true estimation of the associated between exposure and outcome (it is an example of a systematic error)
Selection
Information: Report/Recall/Measurement/Observer
Attrition
Allocation
Publication
Lead time
Length time
What is selection bias
error in selection and allocation of participants
What is information bias
- Measurement (e.g. different equipment used to measure the outcome in the different groups)
- Observer (e.g. the researcher knows which participants are cases and which are controls and subconsciously reports/measures the exposure or outcome differently depending on which group they are in)- expectation bias/Pygmalion effect
- Recall (e.g. events that happened in the past are not
remembered and reported accurately) - Reporting (e.g. respondents report inaccurate information because they are embarrassed or feel judged)
What is attrition bias
participants are removed from the study after withdrawing from it or becoming uncontactable.
What is allocation bias
different participants in different groups (no equal spread)
What is publication bias
Trials with negative results are less likely to be published
What is lead time bias
When screening identifies an outcome earlier than it would otherwise have been identified this results in an apparent increase in survival time, even if screening has no effect on outcome