Public Health Flashcards
What are some structural determinants of health?
- Genetic - Constitutional (age/sex) - Culture - Lifestyle - Social/community networks - Living + working conditions
Which lifestyle factors promote mortality?
- Smoking - Obesity - Sedentary lifestyle - Excess alcohol - Poor diet
What does health psychology emphasise the role of?
Emphasises the role of psychological factors in cause, progression + consequences of health and illness
What are the 3 types of health behaviours?
- Health behaviour = behaviour aimed to prevent disease
- Illness behaviour = behaviour aimed to seek remedy
- Sick role behaviour = any activity aimed at getting well
What are some examples of changing health behaviours?
- Health belief model: perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, benefits and self efficacy are all influences on changing behaviours
- Stages of change model: not thinking (pre contemplation) → thinking about changing (contemplation) → preparing to change → action → maintenance → stable changed lifestyle/relapse
- Motivational interviewing
- Social marketing
- Nudge theory (changing the environment to make the healthy option the easiest option)
- Mindspace
- Financial incentives
What are modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors?
- Modifiable risk factors = things we can change, e.g. smoking
- Non-modifiable risk factors = things we can’t change, e.g. age
What are 3 models of behaviour change?
- Health Belief Model (HBM)
- Theory of Planned Behaviour
- Stages of change (transtheoretical) model
What is the Health Belief Model?
Individuals will change if they believe they are susceptible, that the disease has serious consequences, or that the benefits of taking action outweigh the costs
What is the Theory of Planned Behaviour?
Intention is determined by a person’s attitude to behaviour, perceived social pressure (subjective norm) + person’s appraisal of their ability to perform behaviour (perceived behavioural control)
What is the Transtheoretical model?
Precontemplation (no intention), contemplation (beginning to consider), preparation (getting ready), action + maintenance
What is morality? What is ethics? What are the two types of ethics?
Morality is the concern with the distinction between good + evil. Ethics is a system of moral principles which defines what is good for individuals and society. Meta ethics = nature of good and bad, normative ethics = focus on acts
What are some different forms of ethical arguments?
- Top down deductive, where one specific ethical theory is consistently applied to each problem
- Bottom up inductive, using past medical problems to create guides to practice
- An approach where theories are considered which best fit one’s own beliefs before applying.
- Analogies can also be used
What is the doctrine of double effect?
Sometimes it is permissible to cause a harm as a side effect (or “double effect”) of bringing about a good result even though it would not be permissible to cause such a harm as a means to bringing about the same good end
What are the 4 key ethical theories?
- Consequentialism
- Deontology
- Virtue ethics
- Four principles
What is consequentialism? What is utalitarianism? What is the doctrine of double effect?
- Consequentialism = act is evaluated in terms of consequences.
- Utalitarianism = consequentialist theory. Action is right if it leads to most happiness for greatest number of people
- Doctrine of double effect = doing something morally good with a morally bad side-effect, e.g. treatments with side effects
What is utalitarianism?
An act is evaluated solely in terms of its consequences. It acts to maximise good, e.g. killing one to save many
What is deontology?
Deontology = features of act themselves determine worthiness, not consequences. Actions are good or bad according to set of rules
What is virtue ethics? What are the five focal virtues?
- Virtue ethics = focus is on role of character, integrating reason and emotion
- The five focal virtues are:
- Compassion
- Discernment
- Trustworthiness
- Integrity
- Conscientiousness
What are the four principles?
- Autonomy = respecting patient’s choice
- Beneficience = doing what is in the best interests of your patient
- Non-malificence = do no harm
- Justice = doing what’s best for society as a whole
What is the definition of health?
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
What is the biomedical model of health?
Biomedical:
- Physical and biological factors of health - can be repaired
- Only health professionals can practice it
- Focus on diagnosis, cure + treatment of disease - solutions found in technologies
- Mind/body dualism (suggests can be treated separately)
- Knowledge is objective - neutral + distinct from social factors
What is the social model of health?
Contrasts biomedical model.
- Gives thought to a wide range of factors
- Wide range of people can practice it
- Focus on prevention
- Challenges mind/body dualism
- Knowledge is not objective - we are taught to see the body
What is the first theory of health, ‘Health as an Ideal State’? What are its problems?
- Goal of perfect well-being (WHO definition)
- Disease, illness + forms of handicap must be absent
Problems:
- Is anyone ever healthy?
- What is complete well-being?
- Can we ever attain this ideal state?
- Misleading?
What is the second theory of health, ‘Health as a state of social functioning’? What are its problems?
- Health is a means towards social functioning
- All forms of disease and social handicap need to be removed
- Can still be healthy (function socially) even when suffering with a chronic illness/disease
Problems:
- Very narrow definition seeing health as the opposite of disease
- Patient’s normal state may be unhealthy
- Refusal of treatment might be seen as healthy
What is the third theory of health, ‘Health as a personal strength or ability’? What are its problems?
- Approaches are typically humanist - focus on how people respond to challenges
- Health is a means to a greater end - responding positively to problems
- Attempts to recover holistic ideas about health
Problems:
- Vague
- How can we interfere?
- Basically no good definition for health - twisted to suit purposes
What are the definitions of disease and illness?
- Disease = technical malfunction or deviation from the norm which is scientifically diagnosed. It isn’t homogenous, doctors give different diagnoses
- Illness = the social, lived experience of symptoms and suffering
What is illness harmful to?
Has a double impact on the body and social functioning. Illness is harmful to social functioning thus it allows legitimate deviance from social obligation
What is the sick role? What are the 4 components?
- Sick role = concept that concerns the social aspects of becoming ill and the priviledges and obliagations that come with it:
- Patient exempt from normal social rules
- Is not responsible for their condition
- Should try to get well
- Should seek help and co-operate with medical professionals
What role does a doctor have in deciding if someone can enter the sick role?
- Sickness is either chosen or by force (by intolerable social expectation)
- Only a doctor can determine if someone is sick and can enter the sick role
- Official conformation that they are not malingering
What is the medicalisation hypothesis?
Professional’s tend to see problems in terms of their own profession. Doctors therefore see everything medically. Therefore some conditions that seem medical can be in fact products of social forces, e.g. ADHD/depression?
What are some criticisms of the sick role?
- Failure to account for conflict
- Cannot account for social change - patients are not as passive and more active in their care; patient-doctor relationship is not as symmetrical
- People with chronic illnesses remain in deviant state
What are the 4 criteria of good care?
- Co-participation in care and patient as decision maker
- Acceptance of an open agenda
- Holistic rather than biomedical
- Development of counselling skills
What is medicalisation (sociological model of health)?
- Explains problems in medical terms
- Professionals see problems in terms of their own profession, doctors see everything medically
- Problems that seem medical could be products of social forces
What are the criticisms of medicalisation?
- Historical naivety
- Over simplistic view of medicine
- Under estimate the degree to which modern medicine has been successful in eradicating disease
- The addiction of patients to modern medicine is considerably overstated
What is iatrogenisis (sociological model of health)? What are the different types?
- Unintended adverse effects of a therapeutic intervention
- Can be clinical (unintended side effects of modern medicine), social (leads to nothing other than the ‘expropriation of health’) + cultural (health professionals have an even deeper, health denying impact that removes people’s ability to deal with their weakness and vulnerability)
What is the social paradox (sociological model of health)?
- Diseases can be caused by social factors (e.g. lifestyle) but treated with biological interventions (need to be tackled socially as well)
What is global health defined as? How is global health bets addressed?
- Health provokes, issues, and concerns that transcend national boundaries
- Influenced by circumstances or experiences in other countries
- Best addressed by cooperative actions + solutions
What are some global issues?
- Population growth
- Low fertility in developed countries
- Digital divide - difference in access to information
- International migration
- Global environmental change
- International political crisis
- International agreements
What is happening to the world’s population? What is happening to the the number of children per women in developing and developed countries? What is happening to world fertility?
- The world’s population is increasing. The total number of children per woman is decreasing in less developed countries and remains stable in developed countries. World fertility is generally decreasing.
- The population is aging, especially in the middle class. There is also a high population of under 15s.
What percentages do developing countries make up?
- 84% of world’s population
- 93% of the burden of disease
- 18% of global income
- 11% of global health spending
- There is an unequal distributionof nurses and beds to population ratios globally
Which organisations are the key actors in Global Health?
- United Nations and their agencies, e.g. UNICEF, WHO
- Multilateral Developmental Banks, e.g. The World Bank
- Bilateral agencies, e.g. USAID
- Private foundations, e.g. Rockefeller Foundation
- Non-governmental organisations, e.g. Doctors Without Borders
- Global health partnerships
- Massive disease burden if poorer countries is a threat to global wealth + security
- Millions of people die from preventable diseases due to lack of resources
- Potential to save millions of lives but depends on richer nations for support
What is the impact of smoking?
- Single greatest cause of illness + premature death in UK
- 100,000 deaths per year
- Huge economic cost
- Associated health problems: cancers, COPD, stomach ulcers, impotence, oral health, cataracts
What are the reasons for smoking? What can quitting smoking be modelled by?
Nicotine addiction
- Coping with stress
- Habit
- Socialising
- Fear of weight gain
- Quitting smoking can be modelled by the stages of change model: pre contemplation(smoking) → contemplation(smoker thinking about quitting) → preparing to change → action (ex-smoker less than 6 months) → maintenance (greater than 6 months no smoking)→ stable changed lifestyle/relapse
Why are the physiological effects of smoking?
- Activation of nicotinic ACh receptors in brain
- Dopamine release in nucleus accumbens
- Stimulant, tolerance, withdrawal
Which sex smokes more? Is smoking prevalence increasing or decreasing? Which socioeconomic group is more likely to smoke? What happened in the UK in 2005 and 2007 to help combat smoking?
- Men smoke more than women
- Smoking prevalence is decreasing
- The gap between men and women is closing
- People from lower socioeconomic groups smoke more than those from higher ones
What are some ways to stop smoking?
- Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT):
- Patches, gums, nasal spray, lozenges, inhalators (available on NHS)
- Non-nicotine pharmacology:
- Varenicline, bupropion
The Stop Smoking service works on the principle that it is only possible to help people who want to quit. What model is this?
- Transtheoretical (stages of change) model:
- Pre-contemplation = smoking
- Contemplation = thinking about quitting
- Preparing to change
- Action = ex-smoker less than 6 months
- Maintenance = longer than 6 months not smoking
- Stable changed lifestyle/relapse
When discussing stopping smoking with a patient, what are the three A’s?
- ASK your patient about smoking
- ADVISE your patient on cessation methods
- ASSIST your patient + refer to NHS services
What are the differences between qualitative and quantitative research?
What is screening?
In most cases screening the population is to spot the individuals who are more likely to have a disease. It is not intended to be diagnostic
What type of prevention would breast cancer screening fall under?
Secondary prevention = aim is to detect early disease in order to alter the course of the disease
Screening isn’t always 100% accurate, there will be false positives and false negatives. What are the 5 ways of measuring the effectiveness of screening?
- Sensitivity
- Specificity
- PPV (positive predictive value)
- NPV (negative predictive value)
- Prevalence
What is sensitivity?
- Proportion of people with the disease who are correctly identified by the screening test. It is a measure of how well a test picks up those
What is specificity?
- Specificity of a test is the probability of a person without the disease testing negative. It is a measure of how well a test recognises those without the disease.
What is the positive predicted value (PPV)?
- Proportion of people with a positive result who actually have the disease
What is NPV?
- Proportion of people with a negative test result who don’t have the disease