Public Health Flashcards
Give the 4 domains of public health.
- Health protection.
- Improving services.
- Health improvement.
- The wider determinants of health - looking at the bigger picture.
Name 5 ethical theories.
- Virtue.
- Categorical.
- Imperative.
- Utilitarianism.
- 4 principles.
Sociology of health medicine: name 5 determinants of illness.
- Social class.
- Unemployment.
- Racism/discrimination.
- Material deprivation/poverty.
- Gender.
Describe the Health Belief Model (Becker 1974) of behavioural change.
The individual needs to believe that there are consequences and that they are susceptible to disease. They need to believe that taking action reduces the risks and that the benefits outweigh any costs.
Describe the Transtheoretical model of behavioural change.
- Pre-contemplation (no intention of giving up smoking).
- Contemplation (consider quitting).
- Preparation (get ready to quit in near future).
- Action (engaged in giving up).
- Maintenance (steady non-smoker).
- Relapse?
What is the Gini coefficient?
A statistical representation of a nation’s income distributed among it’s residents. It is the most commonly used measure of equality.
Responses to health inequalities: what are the main principles of the Acheson Report (1998)?
- Reduce income inequality.
2. Give high priority to the health of families with children.
Responses to health inequalities: what are the main principles of Proportionate Universalism?
- Focusing only on the disadvantaged will not reduce inequalities.
- Action needs to be universal.
- A fair distribution of wealth is needed.
What are the main principles of Virtue ethics?
- Focuses on the person who is acting; are they expressing good character?
- Integrates reason and emotion.
- Virtues are acquired.
- An action is virtuous only if the person is acting with the genuine intention of doing the right thing.
What are the challenges/criticisms of Virtue ethics?
- Virtues are culture-specific.
- Too broad for practical application.
- Kindness and compassion could lead to not telling the harmful truth - lying.
- It is not always clear how to resolve a dilemma with virtue ethics.
What are the 4 principles of ethics?
- Autonomy (respect the patient’s decision).
- Benevolence (provide benefits to the patient).
- Non-maleficence (do no harm).
- Justice (ensure fairness in the distribution of treatment).
What does the GMC say are the 5 main ‘duties of a doctor’?
- Protect and promote health.
- Provide a good standard of care.
- Recognise and work within the limits of your competence.
- Work with colleagues in a way to best serve your patients.
- Treat patients as individuals and respect their dignity.
Name 4 ways to assess functional limitations among older people?
- The Katz ADL scale.
- IADL.
- The Barthel ADL index.
- MMSE.
What activities of daily life does the ‘Katz ADL Scale’ include?
Bathing, dressing, toilet use, eating, urine and bowel continence, transferring in/out of bed.
What activities of daily life does the ‘IADL Scale’ include?
Use of the telephone, travelling by car or public transport, food/clothes shopping, cooking, housework, medication use, money management.
What activities of daily life does the ‘Barthel ADL index’ include?
Feeding, grooming, bathing, dressing, walking on a level surface, going up and down stairs, moving from wheelchair to bed, continence, transferring to and from a toilet.
What does the MMSE test?
- Orientation, immediate memory.
- Short-term memory.
- Language functioning.
List 5 challenges of an ageing population.
- Strains on pension and social security systems.
- Increasing demand for health care.
- Bigger need for trained health professionals.
- Increasing demand for long term care.
- Pervasive ageism (denying older people rights and opportunities).
What can cause an ageing population?
- Improvements in sanitation, housing, nutrition and medical interventions.
- Rising life expectancy.
- Falls in fertility - people are having fewer children and having them later.
- Decline in premature mortality.
What is intrinsic ageing?
A natural, universal, inevitable process.
What is extrinsic ageing?
Ageing dependent on external factors e.g. UV exposure, smoking etc.
What physical changes happen to the body later in life?
- Loss of skin elasticity and hair colour.
- Decrease in size and weight.
- Loss of joint flexibility.
- Increased risk of illness.
- Decline in learning ability and less efficient memory.
Why do women generally live longer than men?
- 20% biological - premenopausal women are protected from heart disease by hormones.
- 80% environmental - men take more lifestyle risks than women.
Give 3 consequences of people living longer.
- Pensions will have higher pay outs than currently planned.
- Chronic and comorbid conditions will prevail.
- Rising inequalities as more affluent groups will use health services for longer.