Spina Bifida Wk1 Flashcards
What is public health?(1)
The art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts of society.
What is the population perspective of public health?(3)
- Large studies on the epidemiology of disease/ill health to inform diagnosis, prognosis and treatment decisions
- Developing preventative health programmes
- Ensure patients get best available treatment by developing guidelines, considering access and equity
What is epidemiology?
The quantitative study of the distribution, determinants and control of disease in populations
What is the epidemiology of spina bifida? (5)
- Neural tube defect
- Incidence varies across different populations
- More common in females than males
- Prenatal diagnosis
- Folic acid supplementation given for prevention (including in bread)
What are the risk factors for spina bifida? (6)
- Folic acid deficiency
- Genetic susceptibility
- Family history
- Medications
- Maternal obesity
- Diabetes
How do we collect data? (1)
UK surveillance systems - British Paediatric Surveillance system
What do cohort research studies tell us? (2)
- Tell us the risk of developing a condition
- Prognosis of disease
What do case-control research studies tell us? (1)
- Tell us risk factors of a disease/cause of a condition
What are randomised controlled trials? (1)
Split into 2 groups, one folate supplement given and one control treatment given (with any other factors randomised) and outcomes recorded.
What are outcomes with folic acid? (4)
- All women who could become pregnant - 400 mag/day prior to conception and until 12th week of pregnancy
- Women with neural tube defect prior take 5mg/day prior to conception and until 12th week of pregnancy
- Oct 2018 - Public Health Minister announced a consultation on mandatory fortification of colour with folic acid to prevent fetal abnormalities. June 2019 - consultation launched.
- Possible increased risk of cancers, and masking vitamin B12 deficiency.
What is sociology? (1)
A social science that seeks to understand all aspects of human behaviour - its contexts, relations and structures. Through empirical and theoretical research at every level of society, it examines how individual lives are affected by wider social forces.
What is sociology when applied to medicine? (1)
Seeks to understand the social contexts within which health, illness and medicine are formed, experiences and practiced. It provides a disciplinary framework for the teaching of empirical evidence and utilises relevant theories and concepts to inhale understanding of evidence.
Outcomes of professional values and behaviours(6)
- Professional and ethical responsibilities
- Legal responsibilities
- Patient safety and quality improvement
- Dealing with complexity and uncertainty
- Safeguarding vulnerable patients
- Leadership and team working
Outcomes of professional skills (4)
- Communication and interpersonal skills
- Diagnosis and medical management
- Prescribing medications safely
- Using information effectively and safely
Outcomes of professional knowledge
- The health service and healthcare systems
- Applying biomedical scientifically principles
- Applying psychological principles
- Applying social science principles
- Health promotion and illness prevention
- Clinical research and scholarship
Biomedical Model
- Reductionist: explains illness by simplest possible process (e.g. disordered cells)
- Single-factor causes: looks for the cause of illness rather than contributory factors (e.g. looking for a genetic explanation of alcoholism or smoking)
- Focus on illness (not health)
- People not responsible for illness
Biopsychosocial model
- Holistic: looks at all levels of explanation from micro-level (e.g. biochemical changes in the body) to macro-level (e.g. the culture that you live in)
- Does not look for single-factor causes: multi-factorial model assumes that health and illness have many causes and can produce many effects
- Does not focus exclusively on illness: assumes that the continuum between health and illness must be analysed as a system (system theory approach)
- People’s behaviour influences health (responsibility) and people can change behaviour
Stigmatising conditions
Conditions that set their possessors apart from ‘normal’ people, that mark them as socially unacceptable or inferior beings
Courtesy stigma
Members of families of stigmatised individuals experience stigma because of their affiliation with the stigmatised individual rather than through any characteristics of their own
What are ethics?
- A branch of philosophy
- Refers to the study of how human beings should behave: what is right and what is wrong behaviour
- All interactions can be seen as ethically relevant
- Relates not just to the individual but to whole systems and societies
How do you thrive in life?
- Social animals
- Ethics/Ethics
- Trust/Needs
- Collaboration/Wellbeing
- Performance
- Successful society
What do people want as social animals?
- Acknowledgement
- Care
- Acceptance
What do doctors aim to do ethically?
Reduce human suffering
What involves medical ethics?
- Increased need; we meet patients at a time of intense vulnerability, both social needs and need to trust people around them will be much more pressing when ill.
- Medical power; putting trust in doctors with knowledge - patients will have to live with consequences
3. Decisions; the kinds of decisions doctors make have far-reaching ramifications for individuals and society (e.g. what treatment, withdrawing treatment, end of life)
