Tutorial 2 - Prevention and Health Promotion

Question 1

What is ‘health promotion’?

Answer 1

any planned activity designed to enhance health or prevent disease

Question 2

What are 4 factors that affect health?

Answer 2

• genetics
• access
• environment
• lifestyle

Question 3

What is health education?

Answer 3

refers to giving advice or information to an individual or population with view to improving health

Question 4

What is health protection?

Answer 4

• health protection involves collective activities which are directed at factors beyond the control of the individual
• health protection activities usually include regulations or policies aimed at the prevention of ill health or for positive enhancement of well-being e.g. smoking ban in public places

Question 5

What are 3 theories on how to carry out health promotion?

Answer 5

• educational - make informed choices about health by having access to knowledge
• socioeconomic- make healthy choice the easy choice e.g. better employment etc
• psychological - motivate people to want to change

Question 6

According to Catford (1993), what are 4 key criteria to assess the performance and quality of health promotion activities?

Answer 6

• does the activity understand and respond to people’s needs fairly?
• is it built upon an identifiable approach to health promotion?
• does it demonstrate a sense of direction and coherence?
• are connections made between settings, individual and community approaches?

Question 7

What are examples of health promotion in primary care?

Answer 7

• planned- posters, chronic disease clinics, vaccinations

- opportunistic- advice within surgery, smoking, diet, taking BP

Question 8

What are examples of health promotion in government?

Answer 8

• legislation e.g. legal age limits, smoking ban, highway code etc
• economic e.g. tax on cigarettes and alcohol
• education
• government policy to manage swine flu, using taxes to build leisure centres

Question 9

How can we promote health through empowerment?

Answer 9

• develop ability to resist social pressure
• an ability to utilise effective strategies when faced by an unhealthy environment
• a heightened consciousness of action

Question 10

What is meant by ‘primary prevention’ of disease?

Answer 10

• measures taken to prevent onset of illness or injury
• reduces probability and/or severity of illness or injury
  e. g. smoking cessation or immunisation

Question 11

What is meant by ‘secondary prevention’ of disease?

Answer 11

• detection of an illness or injury at an early stage in order to cure, prevent or lessen symptoms
• earliest opportunity is when a disease becomes evident or detectable and ends when disease becomes symptomatic

Question 12

What is meant by ‘tertiary prevention’ of disease?

Answer 12

measures to limit distress or disability caused by a disease

Question 13

What is the purpose of screening for a disease?

Answer 13

to screen large numbers of people, the majority of which will not have the illness, in order to highlight a smaller proportion of people who may then be referred for more rigorous tests

Question 14

What is Wilson’s criteria used for?

Answer 14

assessing whether a potential screening exercise is worthwhile or not

Question 15

What are 3 factors about the illness that Wilson’s criteria specifies?

Answer 15

• important
• natural history understood
• pre-symptomatic stage

Question 16

What are 5 factors about the test that Wilson’s criteria specifies?

Answer 16

• easy
• acceptable
• cost effective
• sensitive
• specific

Question 17

What are 3 factors about the treatment that Wilson’s criteria specifies?

Answer 17

• acceptable
• cost effective
• better if started early

Question 18

What is meant by the ‘sensitivity’ of a test?

Answer 18

-the amount of true positives that will be detected by a test
-a highly sensitive test is one that correctly identifies one with the disease
SNOUT - high sensitivity, negative result, rule out!

Question 19

What is meant by the ‘specificity’ of the test?

Answer 19

• the amount of true negatives that will be detected by a test
• SPIN, high specificity, rule IN!

Question 20

What is a positive predictive value?

Answer 20

the probability of patients who have a positive test result actually having the disease.

Question 21

What is a negative predictive value?

Answer 21

the probability that a negative test result is accurate.