PUBLIC HEALTH Flashcards
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What is primary prevention?
Give some examples.
Preventing a disease from occurring in the first place.
E.g. change4life, 5-a-day, vaccines > they eliminate risk factors contributing.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What is secondary prevention?
Give some examples
Detecting a disease in its early or pre-clinical phase to alter its course + improve health outcomes.
E.g. all screening programmes (breast, bowel, cervical cancer, heel prick in infants).
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What is tertiary prevention?
Give some examples
Attempting to slow down disease progression + prevent complications of a disease, helping people manage their illness effectively.
E.g. diabetic foot care, attending rehab after a stroke to prevent immobility.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What are the 2 approaches to prevention?
- Population approach.
- High risk approach.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Explain the population approach to prevention.
Give some examples.
Preventative measure delivered on a population wide basis + seeks to shift the risk factor distribution curve.
E.g. dietary salt reduction via legislation to reduce BP, adding iodine to salt to prevent iodine deficiency
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Explain the high risk approach to prevention.
Give some examples
Identifying individuals above a chosen cut-off + treating them.
E.g. screening for HTN + treating them.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What is meant by the prevention paradox?
A preventative measure which brings much benefit to the population often offers little to each participating individual.
I.e. it’s about screening a large number of ppl to help a small number of ppl.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What is the concept of screening?
A process which identifies seemingly well individuals who may be at risk of a disease, in the hope of catching the disease at its early stage.
- It’s not a diagnostic process, simply a means of assessing risk + catching diseases in their early stage.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
In the grid of Disease vs. screening test – what does a, b, c + d stand for?
A = true positive. B = false positive. C = false negative. D = true negative.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Define sensitivity.
The proportion of people with the disease who are correctly identified by the screening test. a ÷ (a + c)
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Define specificity.
The proportion of people without the disease who are correctly excluded by the screening test. d ÷ (d + b)
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Define positive predictive value (PPV).
The proportion with a positive test result who actually have the disease. Dependent on underlying prevalence.
a ÷ (a + b)
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Define negative predictive value (NPV).
The proportion with a negative test result who do not have the disease. This is lower if the prevalence is higher. d ÷ (c + d)
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What are some types of screening available?
- Population-based screening programmes (e.g. cervical, breast cancer).
- Opportunistic screening (e.g. BP measurements in GP).
- Screening for communicable disease.
- Pre-employment + occupational medicals.
- Commercially provided screening (e.g. pay company to send off blood + get tested for a variety of different genetic issues).
- Genetic counselling (genetic testing for people with FHx of diseases).
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What are some of the disadvantages of screening?
- Exposure of well individuals to distressing or harmful diagnostic tests.
- Detection + treatment of sub-clinical disease that may have never caused any problems.
- Preventative interventions that may cause harm to the individual or population.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What are the Wilson + Junger criteria for screening?
- Condition should be an important health problem.
- There should be an accepted treatment available.
- Facilities for Dx + Tx should be available.
- There should be a recognisable latent or early symptomatic stage.
- There should be a suitable test or examination.
- The test should be acceptable to the population.
- The natural Hx of the condition should be understood.
- There should be a policy on whom to treat as pts.
- The costs of screening should be economically balanced.
- Screening should be a continuous process, not just a one off.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
What 2 types of bias may be present in screening?
- Lead-time bias.
- Length-time bias.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Explain what lead-time bias is.
When screening identifies an outcome earlier than it would otherwise have been identified + results in an apparent increase in survival time, even if screening has no effect on the outcome.
PREVENTION + SCREENING
Explain what length-time bias is.
Bias resulting from differences in the length of time taken for a condition to progress to severe effects that may affect the apparent efficacy of a screening method.
E.g. less aggressive cancers w/ longer presentations are more likely to be detected by screening. Comparing survival in screen detected + non-screen detected pts may be biased as there’s a tendency to compare less aggressive + more aggressive cancers.
STUDY DESIGN
What is the methodology behind an ecological study?
- Descriptive/observational study design comprising of case reports or case series studying population/groups rather than individuals. COMPARATIVE
- Uses routinely collected data to show trends in data – often associations between occurrence of disease + exposure to known or suspected causes.
STUDY DESIGN
What are the advantages of an ecological study?
- Few ethical issues.
- Useful for generating hypotheses.
- Uses routine data so quick + cheap.
- Can show prevalence + association.
STUDY DESIGN
What are the disadvantages of an ecological study?
- Cannot show causation.
- Bias (variation in diagnostic criteria).
- Inconsistency in data presentation.
STUDY DESIGN
What is the methodology behind a cross-sectional study?
- Prevalence study.
- Descriptive + analytical study design used to generate hypotheses.
- Divides the population into those without the disease + those with the disease + collects data on them once at a defined time to find associations at that single point in time.
STUDY DESIGN
What are the advantages of a cross-sectional study?
- Relatively cheap + quick.
- Provide data on prevalence at a single point in time.
- Good for surveillance + public health planning.
- Large sample size.