Public Health Flashcards
What proportion of medicines for chronic conditions are not taken as prescribed?
30-50%
What is compliance?
Assumes doctor knows best, patient passive
What is adherence?
Acknowledges important of patient’s beliefs
What is needed to support adherence?
Patient-centred approach
Give 5 examples of non-adherence
- Not taking prescribed medication
- Taking bigger/smaller doses than prescribed
- Taking medication more/less often than prescribed
- Stopping medication without finishing course
- Modifying treatment to accommodate other activities
What are the practical barriers for non-adherence?
- Difficulty understanding instructions
- Problems using treatment
- Inability to pay
- Forgetting
- Capacity and resource
What are the motivational barriers for non-adherence?
- Pt. beliefs about their health/condition
- Beliefs about treatment
- Personal preferences
- Perceptual barriers
What are the 2 beliefs influencing pt. evaluation of prescribed medications?
- Necessity
2. Concerns
What are necessity beliefs?
Perceptions of personal need for treatment
What are concern beliefs?
Concerns about a range of potential adverse consequences
What does patient-centred care encourage?
- Focus in consultation on pt. as a whole person who has individual references situated in a social context
- Shared control of consultation, decisions about interventions or management of health problems with pt.
What are the impacts of good doctor-patient communication?
- Better health outcome
- Higher adherence to therapeutic regimens
- Higher pt. and clinician satisfaction
- Decrease in malpractice risk
What is concordance?
Notion that work of prescriber and patient in consultation is a negotiation between equals
What is the aim of concordance?
Therapeutic alliance between prescriber and patient
What are the strengths of concordance?
- Respect for patient’s agenda
2. Open relationship
What are the patient barriers to concordance?
- Do patients want to engage in discussion with their HCP?
- Might worry some patients
- Patients may want to be told what to do
What are the HCP barriers to concordance?
- Relevant communication skills
- Time/ resources/ organisational constraints
- Challenging
What are the key principles of adherence?
- Improve communication
- Increase patient involvement
- Understand patient’s perspective
- Provide information
- Assess adherence
- Review medications
What are the ethical considerations for adherence?
- Mental capacity
- Public health threat
- Child welfare
What does the Public Health Act provide a basis for?
To detain and isolate an infectious individual in category 4 or 5 disease
How many healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) are there in England per year?
300,000
How much do HCAIs cost the NHS per annum?
£1bn
What does Health Act 2006 determine?
Infection control is every health care workers responsibility
How are infections prevented and controlled?
- Identify risks
- Develop strategies to reduce risks
- Ensure staff are aware of risks and what to do
Give 3 infection control policies
- Single use items
- Outbreak Control plan
- Antibiotic review policy
What is infection?
Affect with a disease-causing organism, requires harm to be done
What is colonisation?
Presence of bacterial cells of humans but without harm
What are the 4 principles of infection prevention and control?
- Identification of risks
- Routes and modes of transmission
- Virulence of organisms
- Remediable factors
What are the routes of transmission?
- Patient
- Environment
- Staff
How can patient A be identified?
- Risk factors
- Screening
- Clinical diagnosis
- Lab diagnosis
What are carbapenemase producing enterobacteriaceae (CPE)?
Colonisers of large bowel, skin below waist and moist sites
What doe CPEs often cause?
UTIs and intra-abdominal infections
What beta-lactam antibiotics are used for Gram -ve resistant bacterias?
Carbapenems
Where are CPEs often found?
Countries with unregulated use of antibiotics
What can be done to stop the route of transmission?
- Isolation
2. Ward design
What is the lead cause of gastroenteritis?
Norovirus
Why is norovirus so infective?
- Low infecting dose
- Short lived immunity
- Able to persist in environment for a long time
- Resistant to conventional cleaning
What is the most effective method of preventing cross infection?
Hand hygiene
What is an endogenous infection?
Infection of a patient by their own flora rather than being acquired from others
Name 5 groups of people most at risk of HIV
- MSM
- PWID
- Commercial sex workers
- Heterosexual women
- Truck drivers
What are the stages of epidemic?
- Nascent
- Concentrated
- Generalised
What is seen in nascent epidemics?
<5% prevalence in all risk groups
What is seen in concentrated epidemics?
> 5% prevalence in one or more risk groups
What is seen in generalised epidemics?
> 5% prevalence in general population
50% of all new HIV infections occur in which age group?
15-24 year olds
What proportion of HIV infections occur in sub-Saharan Africa?
2/3
What are the behavioural changes seen in combatting HIV?
- Education
- Condom use
- Needle exchange
What is a problem for condom use and consensual sex in HIV infections?
Gender inequality
Why does circumcision reduce HIV infection?
- Keratinisation of the inner aspect of the remaining foreskin
- Langerhans cells are removed
- Reduced occurrence of ulcers
- Reduced abrasions or inflammation of foreskin
What can be done to reduce HIV transmission in PWID?
- Needle and syringe programmes
- Drug dependence treatment
- Close compulsory drug detention and rehab centres
What is the risk of MTCT of HIV if untreated?
35%
What can be done to reduce MTCT of HIV?
- Comprehensive antenatal HIV screening
- Anepartum zidovudine (AZT)
- Oral nevirapine for infant
- HAART for mother
- Lifelong antiretroviral treatment for mother
What are the goals of HIV testing?
- Provide high quality service for identifying HIV
- HIV treatment, care and support
- Prevent transmission
Why is diabetes a public health issue?
- Mortality
- Disability
- Co-morbidity
- Reduced QOL
Why is T2DM a public health issue?
It is preventable but increasing in prevalence, lacks policies and has major inequalities in its patients
How many people in England have diabetes?
3.8m
How many people in England have undiagnosed diabetes?
940k
What % of diabetes cases are type 2?
90%
How can T2DM impact be reduced?
- Identify people at risk
- Preventing diabetes
- Diagnosing diabetes earlier
- Effective management and supporting self-management
What environmental factors increase risk of diabetes?
- Sedentary job
- Sedentary leisure activities
- Diet high in calorie dense foods
- Obesogenic environment
What does an obesogenic environment consistent?
- Physical environment e.g. car culture
- Economic environment e.g. cheap TV watching
- Sociocultural environment e.g. family eating habits
What physical factors maintain overweight?
More weight is harder to exercise, dieting
What psychological factors maintain overweight?
Low self-esteem and guilt, comfort eating
What socioeconomic factors maintain overweight?
Reduced opportunities, employment, relationships, social mobility
What DM screening tests are currently available?
- HbA1c
- Random capillary blood glucose
- Random venous blood glucose
- Fasting venous blood glucose
- Oral glucose tolerance test
What interventions are required for DM at primary level?
- Sustained increase in physical activity
- Sustained change in diet
- Sustained weight loss
What secondary approaches are there for DM?
- Raise awareness of diabetes and possible symptoms in community
- Raise awareness of DM in HCPs
- Use clinical records to identify those at risk and/or using blood tests to screen before symptoms develop
What measures are in place for supporting-self care of DM?
- Self-monitoring
- Diet
- Exercise
- Drugs
- Education
- Peer support
What is overweight?
Abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health
How many adults in England are OW or obese?
64%
What socioeconomic factors contribute to OW?
- Poverty
- Ethnicity (Black African)
- Disability
- Lack of qualifications
- Severe mental illness
What % of children in England are OW/obese?
34%
What is the reduction in life expectancy as a result of obesity?
3 years
Give 3 costs of obesity
- Less likely to be in employment
- Increased risk of hospitalisation
- £6.1bn cost to NHS
Give 4 consequences of childhood obesity
- Stigma
- School absence
- Poor physical health
- Risk into adulthood
What factors contribute to energy expenditure?
- Level of accessibility of healthy food
- Level of acceptability of healthy food
- Level of availability of healthy food
- Level of affordability of healthy food
What 5 feedback loops are involved in obesity?
- Health loops
- Governance loops
- Business loops
- Supply and demand loops
- Ecological loops
What are the 4 tiers of individual level interventions for obesity?
- Universal prevention
- Lifestyle intervention
- Specialist services
- Surgery
Give 6 national actions to combat childhood obesity
- Calorie labelling on food products
- Sugar tax
- Strengthen government buying standards for food
- Watershed for HFSS product adverts
- Physical activity in schools
- Ban price promotions of HFSS
Give 3 local actions to combat obesity
- Exclusion zones
- Sport and leisure
- Upkeep of open spaces
What are the 4 quadrants of clinical ethics?
- Medical indications
- Patient preferences
- QOL
- Contextual features
What is connectivity and interdependence?
Behaviour of one individual may affect others or wider system
What is co-evolution?
Adaptation or changes by one organism alters other organisms
What is far from equilibrium?
Pushing yourself away from the comfort zone
What is the main driving factor for BME health inequalities?
Poorer socioeconomic position
What are the reasons for FGM?
- Control over women’s sexuality
- Hygiene
- Gender based factors/ increase femininity
- Cultural identity
- Religion
Give 5 immediate consequences of FGM
- Severe pain
- Shock
- Difficulty passing urine
- Infection
- Bleeding
Give 5 long term consequences of FGM
- Chronic pain
- Chronic pelvic infections
- Excessive scar formation
- Decreased sexual enjoyment
- PTSD
Give 3 complication risks of FGM
- Infertility
- Urinary and menstrual problems
- Painful intercourse
Give 2 advantages of family interpreters
- Cheap
2. Accessible
Give 2 disadvantages of family interpreters
- Not confidential
2. Limit what is interpreted
Give 4 issues around multi-morbidity in pt. from diverse culture
- Different vocabulary
- Symptom descriptions differ
- Undiagnosed disease
- Unmedicated disease
Give 3 unmodifiable risk factors for CHD
- FHx
- Age
- Male
Give 3 modifiable risk factors for CHD
- Smoking
- Diet
- Sedentary lifestyle
Give 3 clinical risk factors for CHD
- Diabetes
- HT
- Lipids
Give 3 psychosocial risk factors for CHD
- Depression
- Work
- Social support
What are psychosocial factors?
Factors influencing psychological
responses to the social environment and
pathophysiological changes
What behaviour pattern is associated with CHD?
Competitive, hostile, impatient
What are 3 behaviours which can reduce CHD risk?
- Emotional: Relax in response to signs of anxiety
- Behavioural: Reduce work demands
- Cognitive: Change way of thinking to less pressured
What hostility behaviours are associated with CHD?
- Feelings of anger
- Annoyance and resentment
- Verbal or physical aggression
What antecedents do depression and anxiety share?
Social deprivation and health inequalities
Which mental health conditions are associated with CHD?
Anxiety and depression
What type of job is associated with MI?
High demand, low control
Give 3 jobs which are high demand, low control
- Junior doctor
- Ambulance distributor
- Call centre
What social factors are a risk for CHD and stroke?
Loneliness and self-isolation
How can influences on an individual’s health be categorised?
- Biological factors
- Personal lifestyle
- Physical and social environment
- Health services
What did the Black Report 1980 show?
Social class health inequalities in overall mortality and health inequalities are widening
What are the 4 possible mechanisms to explain widening socioeconomic health inequalities?
- Artefact
- Social Selection
- Behaviour
- Material circumstances
What did the Acheson Report recommend?
- Evaluate all policies likely to affect health in terms of their impact on inequalities
- Priority to health of families with children
- Government to reduce income inequalities and improve living conditions in poor households
What are the theories of causation?
- Neo-materialist
- Psychosocial
- Life course
What is the life course theory of causation?
- Critical periods have greater impact at certain points in life course, primarily childhood
- Accumulation - hazards and their impacts add up
- Interactions and pathways
What are examples of critical periods?
Measles in pregnancy
What are examples of accumulation?
Hard blue collar work leads to injuries, reduced work opportunities, more injuries
What are examples of interactions and pathways?
Sexual abuse in childhood > poor partner choices, increased likelihood of violence exposure, increased chance of alcohol abuse
What are the categories of psychosocial pathways of causation?
- Low social status
- Lack of friends
- Stress in early life