Public health Flashcards
Define health need
The ability to benefit from a intervention
Define demand
What people ask for
Define supply
What is provided
What makes up Bradshaw’s Taxonomy of Need
- Felt need - individual perceptions of variation from normal health
- Expressed need - individual seeks help to overcome variation in normal health
- Normative need - professional defines intervention appropriate for the expressed need
- Comparative need - comparison between severity, range of interventions and cost
Define health needs assessment
A systematic method of reviewing the health issue facing a population, leading to agreed priorities and resource allocation that will improve health
What approach to health needs assessment has been used in the following case?
A public health consultant is asked by a local politician what the major health issues are in a small town within their constituency.
She cannot find an existing health needs assessment so she conducts one herself. She does this by arranging focus groups with local healthcare professionals, teachers, social workers, business leaders and charities.
She also invites local residents to attend public meetings and sends emails to them to identify issues that they feel are important.
Corporate approach
What are the advantages of a corporate approach to health needs assessment
- 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
What are the limitations of a corporate approach to health needs assessment
- Difficult to distinguish ‘need’ from ‘demand’
- Groups may have vested interests
- May be influenced by political agendas
What approach to health needs assessment has been used in the following case?
The health status of South Hill is compared with a nearby town ‘North Hill’, which is a similar size and affluence. You find that South Hill has a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease and COPD than North Hill. However, it has a lower rate of injuries and death from road traffic accidents
Comparative approach
What are the advantages of a comparative approach to health needs assessment
- Quick and cheap if data available
- Indicates whether health or services provision is better/worse than comparable areas (gives a measure of relative performance)
What are the limitations of a comparative approach to health needs assessment
- 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
Describe the epidemiological approach to health needs assessment
Uses a source of data i.e. disease registry, hospital admissions, GP databases, mortality data, primary data collection (e.g. postal/patient survey) to look at:
a. Disease incidence & prevalence
b. Morbidity & mortality
c. Life expectancy
d. Services available (location, cost, utilisation, effectiveness etc)
What are the advantages of a epidemiological approach to health needs assessment
- Uses existing data
- Provides data on disease incidence/mortality/morbidity etc
- Can evaluate services by trends over time
What are the limitations of a epidemiological approach to health needs assessment
- 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 are the three approaches to health needs assessment and briefly describe them
- Epidemiological: Uses existing data to look at:
a. Disease incidence & prevalence
b. Morbidity & mortality
c. Life expectancy
d. Services available (location, cost, utilisation, effectiveness etc) - Comparative: compares the health or healthcare provision (i.e. health, service provision/utilisation, health outcomes) of one population to another - spatial (e.g. different towns) / social (e.g. age, social class)
- Corporate: Ask the local population what their health needs are and uses focus groups, interviews, public meetings. Wide variety of stake holders: teachers, healthcare professionals, social workers, charity workers, local businesses, council workers, politicians
Give one health related example of something that
you consider is demanded but not needed or
supplied & explain the reasoning behind this
example
?
Give one health related example of something that
you consider is wanted and needed but poorly
supplied & explain the reasoning behind this
example
Mental health services i.e. counselling & psychological therapy demanded & needed however services are facing budget cuts and are struggling to supply this.
IVF: needed and demanded for patients with infertility however not widely available on the NHS and there can be long waiting lists
Yellow fever vaccine: only available privately, but demanded and needed if travelling to an endemic area to prevent infection
Give one health related example of something that
you consider is wanted and supplied but not needed explain the reasoning behind this
example
Antibiotics for an uncomplicated viral upper respiratory tract infection. This can be demanded by the patients parents and supplied in severe cases however antibiotics do not treat viral infections therefore is not needed.
Give one health related example of something that
you consider is needed and supplied but not always wanted/demanded explain the reasoning behind this
example
Smoking cessation services is supplied and needed for health promotion however not everyone will demand for this service.
Give one health related example of something that
you consider is needed, wanted and supplied explain the reasoning behind this
example
Childhood vaccinations
Free contraception
Ambulance services
Define primary prevention
Interventions that aims to remove or reduce a risk factor or introduce a protective factor to prevent a disease before it has developed
Define secondary prevention
2 definitions:
- Trying to catch a disease at an pre-clinical/ early stage to alter the course of disease
- Interventions that prevent recurrence of disease
Define tertiary prevention
Interventions that aim to minimise disability and
prevent complications one disease is diagnosed
What type of prevention is this?: GP practice sets up a diabetes clinic to try to improve the glucose control of its diabetic patients. Patients are provided with education and support, along with lifestyle advice and regular screening of their eyes, kidneys and feet.
Tertiary