SocPop Flashcards
What are the 3 ways to consider normality?
Hint: SOS
Statistical - bell curves, 95% distributions e.g., height
Optimal - what’s the best for a population e.g., BMI
Social - determined by society
What is disease?
- An objective deviation from the biological norm
- A pathological process confirmed by signs and investigations (objective)
- Definitions of disease change over time as medical knowledge advances
What is illness?
A subjective experience or feelings, which can be felt in the absence of disease.
What is sickness?
A social role assigned to or taken on by those perceived to be ill.
What is health?
Hint: PMS
A state of complete Physical, Mental and Social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease/infirmity.
Describe the medical model of health.
- Health is seen as the absence of disease
- Disease is caused by biological/pathological changes; based on mono-causal model
- Aim is to treat/cure, focus is on the individual
Describe the social model of health.
- Social factors and lay beliefs are considered
- It respects autonomy
- Recognises that a person can have a disease/impairment and still feel healthy
What are the 4 lay views of health?
- Absence of disease
- Functional (healthy if can work/do chores)
- Wellbeing/equilibrium (mind, body and spirit are in sync)
- Physical fitness
Define ‘Patient-Centred Care’.
‘Treating patients as they want to be treated.’
What are the 4 principles of Person-Centred Care?
Care is:
PERSONAL (partnership with patient)
ENABLING (recognises strength in self-care)
COORDINATED (over multiple episodes and time)
The patient is treated with DIGNITY, RESPECT and COMPASSION
What are the ethical duties of a doctor?
Respect - ‘due regard for the feelings, wishes or rights of others’
Autonomy - underpins the legal and professional framework that governs the patient-doctor relationship.
Dignity - ‘a state, quality or manner worthy of esteem or respect; and (by extension) self-respect’
Care - beneficence, best interest, ethics of care (treat the condition, care for the person)
Consequences - better patient outcomes, less litigation, fewer complications, increased trust in the medical profession
What are the 5 tasks of the Calgary-Cambridge Model of Consultation?
Commence consultation - Supportive environment, build rapport, establish the problem(s), make a plan for the consultation
Gather information - Explore (biomedical and patient perspective) and ensure (accurate, complete and mutually understood information, and patient feels listened to and valued)
Physical examination
Explain and plan- Sharing information, aiding recall, shared understanding and making a plan together (shared decision-making)
Close consultation - Confirm plan, clarify steps, contingency plan, maximise compliance, build rapport, continue to make patient feel like part of the process
What are the 2 functions of the Calgary-Cambridge Model of Consultation?
Build relationship - Involve patient, build rapport/relationship, encourage sharing, establish trust, counselling as an ends in itself
Provide structure - Make organisation overt, attend to the flow
Define demography.
Study of the size, structure, dispersement and development of human populations.
It is used to establish reliable statistics on:
• Population size and distribution
• Birth and death rates
• Life expectancy
• Migration
How is the quality of health information assessed?
Hint: CARTA
Completeness, Accuracy, Representativeness/relevance, Timeliness, [Accessibility]
What is a census?
Simultaneous recording of demographic data by the government at a particular time pertaining to all the persons who live in a particular territory.
Measures demographic, cultural, material, health and workplace information.
How are births registered?
Notification by attendant to health authority within 36 hours; notification to health authority; registration by parents within 42 days –> local registrar for births, marriages and deaths –> ONS
Describe the measures of fertility.
Crude birth rate = live births/1,000 population
General fertility rate = live births/1,000 females aged 15-44
Total fertility rate = number of children that would be born to a female if she were to live to the end of childbearing years and bear children in accordance with current age specific fertility rates
How are deaths registered?
- Death certificate is issued by the doctor (certifies fact of death, age, place of death and cause of death)
- Death are registered within 5 days, usually by a relative and reported to the registrar for births, marriages and deaths
- The ONS produce mortality statistics (code: ICD10)
What are the 3 different categories of causes of death?
- Direct cause (e.g., pneumonia)
- Intermediate cause (e.g., malnutrition)
- Underlying cause (e.g., dementia)
Why are mortality rates not a reliable picture of mortality?
- The underlying cause of death is subject to diagnostic uncertainty, coding issues and variable quality
- Ethnicity is not collected
- Posthumous inflation of status
What are population estimates used for?
To estimate the size and structure between the census (census baseline + births - deaths +/- migration).
What are population projections used for?
To forecast for population size and structure (based on assumptions about mortality, fertility and migration).
How is morbidity information sourced?
- Cancer registration
- Notification of infectious disease
- NHS activity data (HES and QOF)
What is HES?
Hospital episode statistics.
• Includes details of all NHS admissions, out-patient and A&E visits
• Clinical information is recorded by ICD-10 (international classification of disease, 10th ed) and OPCS-4 (classification of surgical operations and procedures, 4th ed)
What is QOF?
Quality Outcomes Framework.
• Linked to GP contract, based on clinical and public health outcomes
• Almost 100% response from GPs, representative of whole population, updates annually and accessible but excludes non-participating practices, accuracy can be questioned for individual practices and it only provides aggregated data for a practice.
How is information regarding determinants of health sourced?
- Socio-economic, deprivation etc (census)
- Lifestyle factors (surveys)
- Health survey for England: Annual since 1991 (1995 for kids). 16,000 adults, 4,000 children, multi-stage randomised sampling (representative), 75-85% response rate, physical and self-reported measures, monitors targets but national data only.
What are the downsides of using surveys?
Responder bias (more likely to respond if issue affects you personally) and reporting bias (self reporting can mean lower BMI reported).
What are the 4 NICE public health domains?
- Improving the wider determinants of health
- Health improvement
- Health protection
- Healthcare, public health and preventing premature mortality
What is the statistical determinant of normality?
- Normal as the usual or average
- Derived from measurements of populations
- Normal (Gaussian) distribution: 95% of population should be within ±2 standard deviations
- For example, height, weight, blood, waste products
What is the optimal determinant of normality?
The ‘normal’ value is determined by what is required for optimal health.
Examples include: BMI, glomerular filtration rate and vitamin D levels.
What is the social determinant of normality?
- What is ‘normal’ is interpreted with reference to social ‘norms’
- Normality is what society finds acceptable or desirable
- It is influenced by cultural and time – ideas about normality vary widely across and within cultures
- Beliefs, attitudes and behaviour considered acceptable in one culture may not be accepted in others, e.g., gender, sexuality (1967), dress and behaviour codes
What are the 4 dimensions of health?
- Physical
- Mental and emotional
- Social
- Spiritual
What are the limitations to the medical model of health?
- It ignores social factors
- Chronic diseases make it multifactorial/complex
- Power is in the hands of the doctor
What data are included in the UK census?
- Demographic data – age and sex
- Cultural characteristics – ethnicity and religion
- Material deprivation – employment, home ownership, overcrowding, car access, lone parents and lone pensioners
- Health – general, long-term illness and unpaid care
- Workplace and journey to work
What is a major limitation of measuring fertility using the ‘crude birth rate’?
It is a poor indicator of fertility as it includes males, children and post-menopausal women in the denominator.
What is a major limitation of measuring fertility using the ‘general fertility rate’?
It does not account for variation in fertility with age.
Why is the ‘total fertility rate’ a preferable option for measuring fertility?
Accounts for differing fertility rates within age groups.
What are the benefits of mortality data?
- Complete coverage in the UK
* Important information on the health of the population
What are the strengths of population estimates?
- More up to date than the census
* More accurate than projections
What are the limitations of population estimates?
- They get less reliable with time from census
- There is poor information available on migration
- Is not reflective of the future
What are the strengths of population projections?
- Useful for long-term planning
What are the limitations of population projections?
- Accuracy decreases with longer projection and unforeseen events can invalidate results
What is the predicted number of people over 85 years of age in 2041?
3.2 million.
What are the challenges to assessing a population’s health?
- A range of health information is required
- No one source of health data is perfect
- There are many sources of data
What are the uses of cancer registration?
- Monitoring cancer rates
- Evaluation and improvement of cancer treatment
- Evaluation of screening programmes
- Aiding cancer research
What are the strengths of cancer registration?
- Detailed information is updated over time
* Record linkage to cancer deaths (ONS)
What are the weaknesses of cancer registration?
- It is expensive
* Access is difficult due to confidentiality
What information is included in HES?
- Personal information – age or gender
- Clinical information – diagnoses and operations
- Administrative data – date of admission, discharge
- Geographical information – where treated and lives
Who uses HES?
- Commissioning organisations
- Provider organisations
- Researchers
What are the uses of HES?
- To assess trends in NHS hospital activity
- To support local service planning
- To assess health trends over time
- To provide fair access to healthcare
What is the ICD-10?
International Classification of Diseases.
• Describes conditions treated or investigated, e.g., myocardial infarction and fractured skull
• Also used for coding mortality statistics
What is the OPCS-4?
OPCS Classification of Surgical Operations and Procedures.
• Records details of operations e.g., hip replacement
What are the strengths of HES?
- Completeness – as covers all hospital activity
- Accuracy – standard codes used
- Representative – Routine national data
What are the weaknesses of HES?
Accessibility to individual data.
What are the uses of notification of infectious diseases?
- Surveillance
- Outbreak identification
- Trend monitoring
What are the strengths of notification of infectious diseases?
- It is timely (weekly reports by PHE)
- Representative - routine national data
- Accuracy - linked to laboratory reports
What are the weaknesses of notification of infectious diseases?
There is poor/variable completeness for some diseases (e.g., food poisoning) and accuracy is questionable as some suspected cases are also reported.
How many notifiable diseases are they in England?
31.
What should a doctor do if they suspect a notifiable disease?
Notify the Local Health Protection Team (part of PHE).
If a laboratory identifies a notifiable organism, what should they do?
Notify Public Health England.
How often are trends of notifiable diseases produced by PHE?
Weekly.
When was QOF introduced into the GP contract?
2004.
What are the maximum number of points available in QOF?
559.
What are the 3 domains in QOF?
- Clinical (435 points)
- Public health (97 points)
- Public health additional services (27 points)
What percentage of NHS primary care costs are covered by QOF?
15%.
What are the strengths of QOF?
- Completeness - almost 100% reponse
- Representative - representative of entire population
- Timeliness - updated annually
What are the weaknesses of QOF?
- Completeness - excludes practices who do not respond
- Representative - only get aggregated data from each practice
Define ‘prevalence’.
A measure of how common a disease is.
How is prevalence presented?
- Percentage
- Number per n people
Name 3 types of prevalence.
- Point prevalence
- Period prevalence
- Lifetime prevalence
How is prevalence calculated?
As a proportion:
number of people with condition/total number of people
Why do we calculate prevalence?
To gauge the burden of disease.
Why might point prevalence not be an accurate indicator of disease prevalence?
It can be affected by disease duration; acute disease may not occur at that specific time.
Define ‘incidence rate’.
The rate at which new events occur in a population, over a defined period of time.
How is the incidence rate presented?
- per n people per time period
2. per n person-years
Define ‘person-years’.
A measurement combining the number of people observed and the number of years they were observed for.
person-years = number of people × number of years
How is the incidence rate calculated?
number of new cases / (number of people x years observed)
What factors increase prevalence?
- Incidence rate
- Migration rate
What factors decrease prevalence?
- Recovery rate
- Death rate
- Migration rate
What is the ‘point estimate’?
Our best guess based on sample data.
What is the ‘sampling error’?
The differences between the sample point estimates and the truth.
What is the ‘standard error’?
A numerical value that represents the sampling error.
What is the ‘confidence interval’?
A range of plausible values, to represent your level of uncertainty when giving an estimate from a sample.
What is a 95% confidence interval?
Includes all values within 1.96 standard errors of the point estimate.
Lower bound = point estimate – (1.96 × S.E.)
Upper bound = point estimate + (1.96 × S.E.)
How do you calculate the standard error?
SQUARE ROOT (p(1-p))/n
How is the Odds ratio calculated?
OR = (De/He)/(Dn/Hn)
where D, diseased; H, healthy; e, exposed; n, not exposed
Define ‘Odds ratio’.
The odds of A in the presence of B and the odds of A in the absence of B.
Define ‘standardised mortality ratio’.
The ratio of observed deaths in a given group to expected deaths in the general population.
Define ‘absolute risk’.
The difference of the risk of an outcome in the exposed group and the unexposed group.
How is ‘absolute risk’ calculated?
Ie - Iu
where Ie, incidence in the exposed group; Iu, incidence in the unexposed group
What does personalised care involve?
- Seeing (and getting to know) the patient as a person rather than the person as a patient
- A whole person approach
- Putting the person’s needs and preferences, as they define them, first
- Tailoring therapeutic plans and services to patient’s needs and desires
What does enabling care involve?
- Shared decision making – including patients and partners in decision-making
- Recognising the person’s strengths in self-care and management of their condition
- Supporting the person to self-manage: information, knowledge and support
- Patient and public involvement in the design and delivery of services: co-production of health
What does coordinated care involve?
Integrated care to address the health, social and emotional needs of patients:
Integration between health services, social services and other care providers; across primary, community, hospital and tertiary care services (vertical integration); through transitions e.g., child to adult services
Why do we use ‘person-centred care’?
- Evidence of positive outcomes for patients
- Social and political drivers
- Concurs with ethical principles underpinning the duties of a doctor
What are the challenges to ‘person-centred care’?
- Requires understanding of ethical principles and development of appropriate values
- Requires high level of clinical skill and experience
What are the elements of dignity?
Respect, privacy, self esteem, freedom from unnecessary pain and autonomy.
Describe the trends in population health in the UK.
- Social and economic development
- Transition in the demographic and disease profile
- Deaths from acute infections and deficiency diseases decline
- Deaths from chronic and non-communicable diseases increase
Define ‘healthy life expectancy at birth’.
The average number of years in a particular year, one can expect to live in a state of general ‘good’ health.
In 2015, were life expectancies and healthy life expectancies higher in males or females?
Females.
What were the 5 leading causes of death in England and Wales in 2016?
Lung cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, ischaemic heart diseases, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
What is ‘social epidemiology’?
- Examines differential risks for social groups
- Looks at the attributes (e.g., social conditions, exposure to environmental risk factors etc.) of individuals within these groups to try to explain patterns
What social factors may result in systematic differences in health and illness between social groups?
Gender, ethnicity, geography, socio-economic position, age, sexuality.
What is the Registrar General’s socio-economic classification?
- Most commonly used to look at health inequality
- Based on occupation
- Is proxy for status, income, access to material resources and education
Which cancer types are less common in more deprived populations?
Prostate, testis, malignant melanoma, ALL (male), brain tumours (female) and breast.
Define ‘health inequality’.
Systematic differences in health between social groups.
What is the belief of the behavioural/cultural model of health inequality?
Health inequalities are the result of variations in health behaviours and lifestyles e.g., smoking, diet and exercise.
According to the behavioural/cultural model, health behaviour choices are seen as the result of…
- Individual choices
- Knowledge
- Culture
Give 3 examples of health behaviours that are more common in lower socio-economic groups.
- Smoking
- Lack of physical activity
- Poor nutrition
What social factors may explain differences in health behaviours between different social groups?
- Socio-economic circumstances
- Education
- Gender
- Culture and ethnicity
What is the belief of the ‘material explanation’ of health inequality?
Health inequality results from the direct effects of poverty and material deprivation (social inequality), due to differences in access to material resources, which is shaped by broader structural factors, including place in society and policies.
What evidence is there to support the ‘material explanation’ of health inequality?
Lower socio-economic status is associated with poorer access to material health resources, including income, food, fuel, heating, housing, transport, healthy environments and exercise facilities.
Using food as an example, describe how the ‘material explanation’ of health inequality explains this.
- Poor diets and nutritional status are associated with an elevated risk of CHD, type 2 diabetes and childhood obesity
- Higher income is associated with a better diet – more fruit and vegetables, higher fibre intake and lower intake of sugars
- Lower income groups spend more of their income on food, leaving less money for other things – higher calorie, low nutritional value foods are cheapest
- Social security benefits are inadequate for a healthy diet
Provide an example of poorer access to material resources at the community level.
Underinvestment in physical, social and health infrastructures has greatest effects on lower socio-economic groups.
What is the psychosocial explanation of health inequality?
Proposes that health inequality is linked to psychosocial environment (the way people’s environments make them feel).
How does psychosocial stress affect health?
- Directly: ‘allostatic load’ theory links psychosocial environment to physical disease through the neuroendocrine pathway
- Indirectly: adoption of ‘unhealthy’ behaviours e.g., smoking
What additional stresses may be experienced by people on low incomes?
- Stress associated with low income and poorer material circumstances (e.g., money)
- Stress associated with position in social hierarchy
- Stress associated with less control over life (e.g., in work)
What are lifecourse effects?
Material, behavioural and psychosocial (and biological) processes that operate independently, cumulatively and interactively across an individual’s lifecourse, or across generations, to influence the development of disease risk.
Define ‘health behaviours’.
Behaviours that are related to the health status of the individual.
What are the key elements to behaviour change?
- Threat – awareness of a danger or potential threat
- Fear – emotional arousal by perceived relevant threat
- Barriers – preventing response/behaviour
- Benefits – positive reward/consequence
- Subjective norms – the views of others and their relevance
- Attitudes – evaluation/beliefs about the behaviour
- Response efficacy – perception of response in preventing the threat
- Cognitions – awareness of thoughts and perceptions
- Intentions – plans to carry out the response/behaviour
- Cues to action –external and internal factors that influence decision making
Why might people be resistant to change?
- Creatures of habit/being told what to do
- Simply just giving information is not effective
- Short term gain vs long term consequences
- Lack of motivation
What is ‘behaviourism’?
The scientific study of how reward and punishment (stimuli) affect emotion and behaviour (response).
Explain the role of operant conditioning (Skinner) in medicine.
Positive reinforcement vs punishment.
What are the policy categories of the behaviour change wheel?
- Environmental/social planning
- Communication/marketing
- Legislation
- Service provision
- Regulation
- Fiscal measures
- Guidelines
What are the intervention functions of the behaviour change wheel?
- Education
- Persuasion
- Incentivisation
- Coercion
- Training
- Enablement
- Modelling
- Environmental restructuring
- Restrictions
What are the 4 components of the COM-B model?
- Capability
- Opportunity
- Motivation
- Behaviour
What are the 5 steps of behaviour change in practice?
- Step 1: Define the behavioural problem.
- Step 2: What target behaviour will address the problem?
- Step 3: Develop a clear plan of when and how then patient will perform the target behaviours. What behaviours do they need to change? Who else is involved (healthcare professionals, healthcare systems, family/friends)?
- Step 4: Assess using the COM-B framework. Do they have the capability, motivation and opportunity to engage in the behaviour change?
- Step 5: Reflect, evaluate, monitor and adapt if necessary.
Using smoking as an example, explain how the health-belief model (HBM) is used in clinical practice.
•Explore perceived susceptibility and severity:
o How do you think smoking is affecting your health? (current susceptibility)
o How might it effect your health in ten years’ time? (future susceptibility)
o What would it be like if that happened to you/you got the illness? (Severity)
• Educate patient about the risks of smoking, which can increase the perceived susceptibility and severity
• Explore perceived benefits and barriers
o What are the pros and cons of smoking for you? (current benefits and costs)
o Is there anything stopping you from giving up? (current barriers)
• Use education for perceptions of threat, goal setting/action planning and problem solving to help overcome barriers
• Work with the patient to problem solve and overcome barriers and reinforce education about the benefits of giving up
Using smoking as an example, explain how the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is used in clinical practice.
• Explore attitude: What do you think about smoking? Is smoking good or bad for you? In what way? (Educate)
• Explore perceived norms:
o What do your family/friends think about you smoking? (normative beliefs)
o Whose opinion is most important to you? Would you like to quit smoking for them? (motivation to comply)
• Explore intentions:
o Have you ever thought about giving up smoking?
o Do you intend to give up smoking in the next few months?
• Explore perceived behavioural control
o Do you think you can give up smoking?
• If perceived control is low, you can explore further by asking why? Try to normalise the situation and explore ways around the obstacles.
• If perceived control is high, get ready to attempt behaviour change.
What are the 5 stages of change in the transtheoretical model?
- Precontemplation
- Contemplation
- Preparation
- Action
- Maintenance
Define ‘sex’.
Biological and physiological characteristics that are used to categorise people as male or female.
Define ‘gender’.
Socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for males and females.
Define ‘heteronormativity’.
Society’s assumption that relationships between the opposite binary sex individuals (heterosexuality) are the norm or default.
What is meant by ‘gender identity’?
Internal sense of one’s own gender.
What is meant by the term ‘transgender’?
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex/gender they were assigned at birth.
What is meant by the term ‘sexual orientation’?
A person’s physical, romantic, emotional or other form of attraction to others.
Who has a longer life expectancy, males of females?
Females.
Who spends a greater proportion of their lives in poor health and with disability, males or females?
Females.
Are mental illness rates higher among men or women?
Women.
Name some possible biological explanations for sex differences in health.
- Boys are more vulnerable in infancy
- Immune system differences
- Hormone differences
- Cardiovascular reactivity
- Neuroendocrine responses
What patterns of health behaviour are observed more commonly in males?
- Higher smoking rates
- Higher alcohol consumption
- Higher rates of hospital admission for alcohol-related problems (65% vs 35%)
- Strong association between heavy drinking, depression and suicide in men