Public Health section Flashcards
What is public health the science and art of?
- Preventing disease 2. Prolonging life 3. Promoting health and efficiency through organized community effort
How did Hippocrates attempt to explain disease?
From a “scientific” perspective (not supernatural)
Hippocrates recognized association of disease with what?
Environmental factors
What did Hippocrates recognize the difference between?
Endemic and epidemic
What is an endemic?
Disease outbreak restricted or peculiar to locality or region
What is an epidemic?
Disease outbreak affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region AT THE SAME TIME
Who recorded a major epidemic of influenza in 412 BC?
Hippocrates
Who recorded one of the earliest descriptions of malaria?
Hippocrates
What did the intro of gunpowder lead to in military hygiene?
Change in wound care
Who did most of the military amputations in the 1600s-1700s?
Barbers
What was the Elizabethan Poor Act?
Defined “poor” and services that they were to receive. Outdoor and Indoor relief
What led to the establishment of the Elizabethan Poor Act?
The feudal system collapse, which led to an increasing number of poor. Crowded cities and towns
What was “Outdoor relief”?
Poor were left in their own homes and given “dole”
What was “Indoor relief”?
Poor taken to almshouse, sick to hospital, orphans to orphanages, idle poor to workhouses.
Who established the Bills of Mortality?
John Graunt
What are the Bills of Mortality?
first vital statistics ever recorded
What are vital statistics?
Recording birth and death of individuals within a government’s jurisdiction
What was the result of urbanization?
Conditions of streets/cities was deplorable. Wastes tossed into streets
What happened to pauper children during the Industrial Revolution?
indentured to owners of mines and factories. (apprentice slavery)
What were workhouses?
Indoor relief for those too old or poor to support themselves
How were workhouse inmates segretate?
Into 7 classes (aged/infirm men, able bodied men & boys >13, boys 7-13, aged/infirm women, able bodied women and girls >13, girls 7-13, and children)
What was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens used for?
Bring public’s attention to various contemporary social evils, including workhouse conditions/child labor
When was public health first recognized in England?
First sanitary legislation enacted in 1837
Who was Edwin Chadwick?
Wrote “Report on an Inquiry Into the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain”
What did Edwin Chadwick’s call for reforms lead to?
Establishment of General Board of Health
What legislation was passed following Edwin Chadwick’s report?
Factory management, child welfare, and care of the aged legislation.
Why did Florence Nightingale enter the nursing profession?
In response to a pauper’s death in a workhouse in London
Where did Florence Nightingale gain fame?
in the Crimean War
How were the native American people affected by new diseases?
Introduced by Europeans, native people nearly eliminated by smallpox
Who was Jeffery Amherst?
A general of the British Forces in the French and Indian war - infected Ottawa tribe using smallpox-tainted blankets
What effect did smallpox have on American colonies?
Suffered significantly - Jamestown from 500 to 50 people in one winter
Why did incidence of disease in early America increase?
Due to increased immigration
When were local health agencies formed?
In response to increased populations
Why was the first federal health agency established?
To serve merchant seamen that did not have permanent homes
What was the Marine Hospital Fund?
Federal health agency established by first congress - physicians in each port to care for seamen
What was the Marine Hospital Service?
National agency - supervising medical officer, later became surgeon general.
What was the Port Quarantine Act of 1878?
Due to yellow fever outbreak - immigration restricted to ports
Why was immigration restricted to ports?
Physicians could control local outbreaks - applied bacteriology
What did the Marine Hospital Service become in 1912?
US Public Health Service (USPHS)
Who is the director of USPHS?
Surgeon general
What was USPHS dedicated to?
Exploration of disease in laboratory and field.
Who established the National Leprosarium in Carville, LA?
USPHS
Who was responsible for examination of all immigrants at Ellis Island?
USPHS
Why did the USPHS establish an agency for veneral disease in 1918?
First World War = large number of draft-age men infected with syphillis
Why was the narcotics division of USPHS established?
In response to opium use and recognition of addiction
What did USPHS become part of in 1917?
Military service
What was the Hospital Services and Construction Act of 1946?
At end of WWII congress gave USPHS responsibility for nationwide program of hospital and health center construction
Who established the first public health nursing program?
Lillian Wald
Who established the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) in 1925?
Mary Breckinridge
Why was the FNS established?
To provide professional health to Appalachian mountains (poor, isolated regions)
What was the Social Security Act of 1935?
Response to Great Depression - provided funding for health protection and promotion, provided money to poor, elderly, disabled, unemployed, and funding for priority diseases
What is Medicare?
National health plan
Who first asked congress for national health plan?
Harry Truman
Who signed Medicare and Medicaid into law?
Lyndon Johnson
What are the factors affecting development in developing countries?
Agricultural underdevelopment, Poverty, Malnutrition, Parasitic infection, Social injustice, Suppression of women, and Racism/religious intolerance
