Public health and health promotion Flashcards
What is health - WHO?
A resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasising social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities
What is public health?
Science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised efforts of society
What are some determinants of health?
Life expectancy, socioeconomic status, age, sex, ethnicity, smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption
What is health promotion?
Process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health
What does health promotion involve?
Clinical interventions, knowledge transfer and health literacy, healthy public policy (enabling equal opportunities for health and well being- tannahill model), community development
What are the different levels of prevention?
Primordial, primary, secondary, tertiary
What is primordial prevention?
Prevention of factors promoting the emergence of lifestyles, behaviours, exposure patterns
What is primary prevention?
Actions to prevent onset of disease- health education, prescriptive diets and vaccination
What is secondary prevention?
Halting progression of illness once it is established- early detection and then prompt effective treatment
What is tertiary prevention?
Rehab of people w/ established disease to minimise residual disability and complications
What are 2 approaches to disease prevention
High risk- identifying those in special need, controlling exposure, providing protection, screening among minority groups for specific disorders
Population approach- Begins with recognition of occurrence of common diseases and exposures reflect the behaviour of societies as a whole
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the high risk approach?
Strengths- effective (high motivation of individual and physician), efficient, risk ratio is favourable, appropriate to individual, easy to evaluate
Weakness- palliative and temporary, risk prediction is not accurate, difficulty and costs of screening, hard to change individual behaviours
What are the strength and weaknesses of the population approach?
Strengths- equitable (attributable risk may be high where risk is low if a lot of people are exposed to that low risk), radical, large potential for population, behaviourally appropriate
Weaknesses- small advantages to individual, poor motivation of subject and physician, risk ratio can be questioned
What is an example of a population approach?
Educating students on risks associated with drinking alcohol
What did the wanless report say?
Focus on prevention and wider determinants of health. Cost-effectivesness of actions to improve health and reduce inequalities
