Public Health Flashcards
Describe the three main categories of health behavior
Health Behaviour
Illness Behaviour
Sick Role Behaviour
Define Health Behaviour
A behaviour aimed to prevent disease (e.g. eating well)
Define Illness Behaviour
A behaviour aimed to seek remedy (e.g. going to the doctors)
Define Sick Role Behaviour
Any activity aimed at getting well (e.g. resting, medications)
Name two types of attitudes towards health
Damaging health (smoking, alcohol) Health Promoting (excersise)
Name some modifiable risk factors
Diet
Weight
Physical Activity
Sleep
Name some non-modifiable risk factors
Age
Sex
Genetics
Two ways we can PREVENT disease
Preventative services via NHS
Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention
What are preventative services
Screening
Child health protection
What does the MORGEN study show us
That sufficient sleep duration contributes to lower CV disease risk in addition to 4 traditional lifestyle factors
How long was the MORGEN study followed up for
10-14 years
Name five lifestyle factors
Smoking Being overweight Little physical activity Excessive alcohol Poor Diet
Leading cause of death in Sheffield?
Cancer
What follows cancer as the leading cause of death in Sheffield
CV disease
Why do we need interventions
Could have a significant impact on mortality and morbidity
Define Morbidity
State of being diseased or ill health in a population
What can morbidity lead to
Mental health problems
Define Mortality
The number of people who died in a population
Three disadvantages of intervention
Genetic Predisposition
Expensive
Side-effects
Example of intervention at the population level
Health promotion
Describe health promotion
Process of enabling people to exert control over the determinants of health, improving health
Example of intervention at an individual level
Patient-centred approach
What are two examples of health promotions
Campaigns to promote ‘good’ health:
- Change 4 Life
- Movember
Promoting screening + immunisations:
MMR
What three factors should we consider to reduce alcohol consumption
Individual Behaviour (how much they drink) Local community (A&E and local sales of alcohol) Population level (demographic patterns of liver cirrhosis)
Four factors that can affect the perception of risk
- Lack of personal experience with the problem
-Belief only personal action will help
Belief that if it hasn’t happened now it will never happen
Belief that the problem is uncommon
What is the health belief model
Individuals will change if they:
Believe that they are susceptible to disease in question
Believe it has serious consequences
Believe that action reduces susceptibility
Believe that benefits of taking action outweigh the cost
What is the theory of planned behaviour
Proposes that predictor of behaviour can be best assessed by intent:
- Person’s attitude to behaviour
- Subjective Norm
- Percieved behavioural control
Define the transtheoretical model
Pre-contemplation (not ready yet)
Contemplation ( Beginning to consider but not for any time in the future)
Preparation (Getting ready to quit in the near future)
Action (doing it)
Maintenance (steady quitter)
Relapse
Nice guidance on behaviour change
- Planning interventions
- Assessing the social context
- Education and learning
- Individual-level interventions
- Community-level interventions
- Population-level interventions
- Evaluating effectiveness
- Assessing cost-effectiveness
What three factors can allow you to break confidentiality
- Required by law
- Public Interest
- Patient consent (implied or explicit)
All have to be done in patient’s knowledge
What are the four duties of a doctor as defined by the GMC
- Knowledge skills + Performance
- Safety + Quality
- Communication, partnership and teamwork
- Maintain Trust
Criteria for disclosure
- Anonymous
- Patient has not objected
- Consent
- Keep to minimum
- Meets current guidelines and laws
- Act promptly
What interactions with the law allow us to disclose information
Notifiable disease
Regulatory body demands it (CQC, GMC)
Ordered by a judge (Can be refused if needed)
Police, solicitor (Only if consent is given)
Examples of public health which allow disclosure of information
- Serious communicable disease
- Crime
- Research
- Education
Define long-term condition
A condition that cannot be, at present, cured but can be controlled by medication + other therapies
Define multi-morbidity
The co-occurrence of two or more chronic medical conditions in one person
Define Polypharmacy
Use of 4 or more medications by a patient
Define Medical Compliance
Describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice
Usually if they’ve been taking their prescribed medication
How does an aging population affect age median
Increases it
How does the proportion of older people change and why
Increased proportion due to increased life expectancy and decreased birth rate
Also due to improved health care, sanitation, living conditions and education
Four challenges of an ageing population
- Increased people with disabilities so more money needed to fund care for these people
- Health Gap: The number of years someone can live without a disability after 65 can vary by 12 years
- Increased multimorbidity
- Increased pressure on the NHS (more hospital admissions)
What did Ignacz Semmelweis campaign for?
Hand washing after discovering a correlation between puerperal fever and dissection
Define Gini coefficient
A statistical representation of nation’s income distribution
What was the Black Report (1980)
Document reporting on health inequality causes
What were the five causes of health inequality according to the black report (1980)
Material (environmental causes mediated by behaviour)
Artefact (An apparent product of how inequality is measured)
Cultural/Behavioural (poorer people live more unhealthy lifestyles)
Selection (sick people sink socially and economically)
What two conclusions did the Acheson Report (1998) come to?
Income inequality should be reduced
Give high priority to health of families with children
What are three aspects of proportionate universalism
- Focusing on the disadvantage only will not help reduce inequality
- Action must be universal but with a scale and intensity proportional to the disadvantage
- Fair distribution of wealth is important
What are the three theories of causation?
Psychosocial
Neo-material
Life-Course
What is the theory behind psychosocial causation
- Stress results in inability to respond efficiently to the body’s demands
- Impact on blood pressure, cortisol levels and on inflammatory and neuroendocrine responses
What is the theory behind net-material causation
- The more hierarchal societies are less willing to invest into the provision of public goods
- Poorer people have less material goods of which the quality is lower
What is the theory behind Life-Course theory of causation
- A combination of both psychosocial and net-material explanations
- Critical periods: Possess greater impact at certain points in the life course (childhood)
- Accumulation: Hazards and their impacts add up -> hard work leads to injuries resulting in disabilities that may lead to more injuries
- Interactions and pathways (sexual abuse leads to poor partner choice in adulthood)
What are the four domains of public health
- Health protection (infectious disease, equity, service planning)
- Improving services (efficiency and equity)
- Health improvement
- Addressing the wider detriments of health
What is meta-ethics
Exploring fundamental questions
What are the five types of ethics
- Virtue
- Categorical
- Imperative
- Utilitarianism
- Four principles
What is applied ethics
A recent emergence of ethical investigations in specific areas
What are four ethical arguments
- Deductive (one general ethical theory can apply to all medical problems)
- Inductive (settled medical cases used to generate theory or guides to medical practice)
- Considering what we believe in (feelings)
- Ethical analogies (scenarios)
Define the ‘ad hominem’ ethical fallacy
Responding to arguments by attacking the person’s character than the content of their argument
What is an ‘authority claim’ fallacy of ethics?
Saying a claim is correct because the authority has said so
What is the ‘petition principii’ fallacy of ethics
Assuming the initial point of the argument - ‘beg the question’
What is the ‘dissenters’ fallacy of ethics
Identifying those who disagree does not prove the claim is not valid
What is the ‘motherhoods’ fallacy of ethics?
Inserting a soft statement to disguise the disputable one
e.g. All humans are equal (so we shouldn’t stop PVS patient treatment)
What is the ‘no true scotsman’ fallacy of ethics?
Modifying the argument
What are fine structural determinants of illness
- Social Class
- Material Deprivation / Poverty
- Unemployment
- Discrimination
- Gender and Health
What is the biomedical model of health
- Mind and body are treated separately
- Body, like a machine, can be repaired
- This privileges the use of technological interventions
- It neglects social and psychological dimensions of disease
What are three main notifiable diseases that MUST be reported to the WHO + requires disclosure of private information
- Cholera
- Yellow Fever
- Plague
Define primary prevention of CVD
Preventing CVD before it occurs
Define secondary prevention of CVD
Preventing additional attacks of CVD after the first attack has occurred
What can we do as primary prevention of CVD
Blood thinning drugs (aspirin)
What can we do as secondary prevention of CVD
Surgical Procedures
Aspirin
What are three non-modifiable risk factors for CVD
Age
Ethnicity
Family history of heart disease
What are modifiable factors affecting CVD?
BP Physical Inactivity Being overweight High Blood Cholesterol Smoking
Changes to diet to prevent CVD
LDL - Bad cholesterol
HDL - Good cholesterol
Veg
Fruits
Whole-grains
Low fat dairy products (fish)
What other ways can I reduce chances of CVD other than diet
Smoking - Quit
Lower BP (reduce Na intake)
Exercise (3-4 times a week at 40 mins sessions)
How would I assess for cardiac chest pain
- Check whether they still have chest pain or if it happened in the last 12 hours
- History of chest pain
- Presence of CVD risk factors
- History of ischaemic heart disease
- Previous investigations for chest pain
- Prescribe GTN spray
- Take resting 12-lead ECG ASAP
What is GTN
A spray used for pain relief (short-term only)
How long do the effects of GTN last for
20-30 minutes
What symptom may indicate Acute Coronary syndrome
Pain lasting longer than 15 minutes
What is 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 a teleological argument
Argument for the existence of god
What is a deontological ethics
Judges morality of an action based on rules
What type of argument is utilitarianism/ consequentialism
Teleological
What is the concept of utilitarianism / consequentialism
An act is evaluated solely in terms of its consequences
Maximising good and minimising harm
What are a few criticisms of utilitarianism
It is impossible to apply - happiness can’t be quantified or measured
Difficult to apply as we can’t calculate all the effects for an individual
What type of argument is kantianism
Deontological
What is kantianism
Features of the act themselves determine worthiness of the act
Following natural laws and rights
Gives us imperatives: do not kill, do not lie etc.
‘A person is an end itself, never means to an end’
What are criticisms of kantianism
For an action to be permissible, it must be possible to apply it to all people without a contradiction occurring.
What type of argument is virtue ethics
Deontological
Define virtue ethics
Focus is on the kind of person who is acting, de-emphasises rules
Is the person in action expressing good character or not?
We become virtuous only by practicing virtuous actions
What are the five focal virtues that make up virtue ethics
Compassion Discernment Trustworthiness Integrity Conscientiousness
Cook Dick To Interest Callum
What is the criticism of virtue ethics
Virtue ethics is ‘culturally relative’
Since different people, cultures and societies often have different opinions on what constitutes a virtue.
What are the four principles of ethics
Autonomy (obligation to respect decision of our parents)
Benevolence (balancing benefits with risks)
Non-Maleficence (do no harm, reduce or prevent harm)
Justice (need vs benefit)
5 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 your own competence
- Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity
Protect
Provide
Recognise
Rspect
What does the Katz ADL consist of
Daily Life limitations for old people:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Toilet use
- Transferring in/out of bed
- Urine and Bowel continence
- Eating
Betty’s Dad Telephones Tim’s Uni Exterminator
Describe IADL
Telephone Travelling (by car or using public transport) Food or clothes shopping Meal Preparation Housework Medication use Management of money
Tim’s Teacher Fought Many Hamsters Mid March
Describe Barthel ADL Index
- Feeding
- Moving from wheelchair to bed
- Grooming
- Transferring to and from a toilet
- Bathing
- Walking on level surface
- Going up and down the stairs
- Dressing
- Continence of bowels
- Continence of bladder
Feelings Moved Gary To the Bar With Greg Dressed in Casual Costumes
What three aspects are being tested on old people in the Mini Mental State Examination
- Orientation, immediate memory
- Short term memory
- Language Functioning
Define acute illness
A disease of short duration that starts quickly and has severe symptoms
Define chronic illness
A persistent or recurring condition which may or may not be severe, often starting with gradually slow change
Define Polypharmacy
The use of multiple medications or administration of more medications than are clinically indicated
What are 5 challenges of aging population
- Strains on pension and social security systems
- Increasing demand on health care
- Bigger need for trained health services
- Increased demand for long term care
- Pervasive ageism (denying old people rights and opportunities available for other adults)
Strains Demand Need Demand Ageism
What are five causes of waging population
- Improvements in sanitation, housing and medical interventions
- Life expectancy is rising around globe
- Substantial fall sin fertility
- Decline in premature mortality
- More people reaching older age while fewer children are born
Facts on UK ageing population
Population of 65+ is the same as population of under 15
By 2025, there will be more people over 65 than under 20
Define intrinsic ageing
Natural, universal, inevitable
Define extrinsic ageing
Dependant on external factors (UV ray exposure smoking etc)
What are five examples of physical changes during ageing
- Loss of skin elasticity + hair colour
- Decrease in size and weight
- Loss of joint flexibility
- Increased susceptibility to illness
- Decline in learning ability + less efficient memory
Three impacts of ageing on vision
- Need 3 times more light
- Depth/colour perception
- Narrowing of visual field
Two impacts of ageing on hearing
- High frequency loss
2. Speech comprehension 20%
How does ageing affect taste and smell
We lose 50% of our taste buds.
Economic costs of smoking
5.5% of healthcare costs - smoking
Loss of productivity from smoking breaks
Increased Absents (£2.5 billion)
Cleaning up butts
Health problems in the UK due to smoking
Single greatest cause of illness and premature death in the UK
100,000 die a year in UK
COPD
Name four medications to stop smoking
Nicotine replacement therapy
Varenicline
Antidepressants
Clonidine
How do nicotine replacement therapy work
Stimulates nicotinic receptors and stimulates release of dopamine
What three ways can GP manage smokers
Cost
Health damages -> outline health risks
Helplines
What are readings on a spirometer trace compared to
BMI and age
What will diagnosis using an X-ray for COPD tell us
Whether another condition is causing symptoms
What is a blood test for COPD aiming for
Checks if symptoms are due to anaemia
What does the peak flow test for COPD aim to show us
It it is asthma
What should we do to patients who remain breathless despite having bronchodilators
Maintenance therapy
What should we give to patients with an FEV1 > 50%
LABA (agonist) or LAMA (antagonist)
or Pulmonary rehab
What does COPD stand for
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Symptoms of COPD
Tight chest
Wheezing
Short breath
What antibiotic can I use to treat exacerbation of COPD
Azithromycin
What does it mean to be ‘institutionalising death’
60% of people die in hospital but 70% want to die at home
What is medicalisation of death
Death as a natural part of our life is challenged by trying to prolong life at any cost
What is the Glaser + Strauss (1965) study
Observational study of interactions between dying people, relatives and staff in USA hospitals
What were the four awareness contexts discovered in the Glaser + Strauss report
Closed Awareness - Patients not aware of their own impending death
Suspicion - Awareness
Mutual Pretence
Open Awareness
What is closed awareness
Patients not aware of their own impending death
What is suspected Awareness
pt suspects others know and attempts to confirm/invalidate his/her suspicions
What is mutual Pretence
all sides know but pretend the others do not