Public Health Flashcards
What is the 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 effect does decreased social class have on life expectancy?
It decreases it
Once a country reaches a financial threshold at which diseases associated with poverty are replaced with degenerative diseases, does further income increase have an impact?
No
What is the definition of social class?
A measure of occupation, stratification, social position and access to power and resources
What is the inverse care law?
Where the availability of good medical care tends to vary inversely with the need for it within a population
What is incidence?
The number of new cases per unit of time (can be expressed as a percentage or per number e.g. 100,000)
How can incidence be increased?
1) by screening for new cases
2) by increasing risk factors
How can incidence be decreased?
By decreasing risk factors e.g. Using primary interventions
What is prevalence?
The number of existing cases at a particular point in time (can be expressed as a total, percentage or per number e.g. 100,000)
How can prevalence be increased?
1) Screening programmes identifying new cases
2) increasing risk factors
3) increased life expectancy due to better treatments
How could prevalence be decreased?
1) cures for the condition
2) decreasing risk factors
What is sociology?
The study of social relations (the bonds between people and groups of people) and social processes (where direct human actions are a result of collective human actions).
It is a measure of social interdependencies.
What is the sick role?
This is where being ill allows a person to deviate from their normal social roles.
A sick person is: Exempt from normal social roles Is not responsible for their condition Should try to get well Should seek help and co-operate with medical professionals
What is the Medicalisation hypothesis?
This is where professionals tend to see problems in terms of their own profession, therefore doctors tend to see all problems medically.
This may not always be the case, they may be the result of social forces e.g. ADHD and depression
Iatrogenesis, what is it?
The unintended adverse effects of therapeutic intervention. It can be clinical, social or cultural
Changing health behaviours:
What is the health belief model?
Perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, benefits and self efficacy are all influences on changing behaviours
Changing health behaviours:
What is the stages of change model?
Not thinking (pre-contemplation) - thinking about changing (contemplation) - preparing to change - action - maintenance - stable changed lifestyle/relapse
What ways can health behaviour be changed?
1) Motivational interviewing
2) social marketing
3) financial incentives
Changing health behaviours:
What is the nudge theory?
Changing the environment to make the healthiest option the easiest
What is public health?
Public health is concerned with health protection, promotion and improving and organising health sciences
Screening: what is sensitivity?
The probability of a person with a disease obtaining a positive test result - true positive.
This is the true positive results divided by the total number of people with the disease.
It measure how well the test picks up the disease.
Screening: what is specificity?
A test to look at the probability of a person without the disease testing negative - true negative
This is calculated by the true negatives divided by total number of people without the disease.
What is the positive predictive value?
The proportion of people with positive test result who actually have the disease
What is the what’ve predictive value?
The proportion of people without the disease who are correctly excluded by the the screening process
What are the affects of prevalence on positive predictive and negative predictive values?
If prevalence of a disease is high false positives fall - this means that the positive predictive value increases and the negative predictive value decreases
Reverse is true for rare diseases
What are the principles of whether screening should be carried out?
1) the condition should be a important problem
2) there should be an acceptable treatment
3) facilities for diagnosis and treatment should be available
4) there should be a recognised early stage
5) the natural history of the disease should be known
6) there should be a suitable test
7) there should be an agreed policy on whom to treat
8) the cost of case finding should be balanced in relation to cost as a whole
What are the points in support of screening?
1) prevent suffering
2) early identification beneficial
3) early treatment is cheaper
4) patient satisfaction tends to be high
What are the points against screening?
1) potential damage caused by false positives and negatives
2) potential adverse effects of screening on healthy people
3) personal choice may be compromised
What is primary prevention?
Aims to prevent a disease from occurring in the first place - reducing exposures
What is secondary prevention?
The aim is to detect disease early and slow down or halt its progression
What is tertiary prevention?
This aims to reduce the complications of an established disease by offering appropriate treatments or interventions
What is the prevention paradox?
This is where a larger number of people who have a small risk contribute to more cases of that disease than people at higher, individual risk
What is the high risk approach to reducing risk?
1) target all individuals
2) aim to reduce the risk below set limit
3) accepted by society - target those outside normal levels
What is the population approach to reducing disease risk?
1) target all individuals
2) aim to reduce risk to individuals
3) recognises that the low risk majority contribute to the majority of cases
4) has concerns over treating the well - “nanny state”
The high risk approach favours the affluent and educated, why?
1) they are more likely to engage with health services
2) they are more likely to comply with treatments
3) they are more likely to have the means to make the necessary means to change lifestyle
What are the phases of cardiac rehabilitation?
Phase 1 - in hospital
Phase 2 - early post discharge
Phase 3 - 16 weeks
Phase 4 - long term maintenance of lifestyle changes
What are common reasons cited for smoking?
1) nicotine addiction
2) coping with stress
3) habit
4) socialising
5) fear of weight gain
What are the two types of influenza?
Influenza A - the strain which causes pandemics
Influenza B - the strain which is seasonal