WEEK 3: HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION Flashcards
What is disease prevention?
Understood as specific, population-based and individual-based interventions for primary and secondary (early detection) prevention, aiming to minimize the burden of diseases and associated risk factors.
What is the difference between disease prevention and health promotion?
It is useful to characterize disease prevention services as those primarily concentrated within the health care sector,
Health promotion services as those that depend on intersectoral actions and/or are concerned with the social determinants of health.
What are social determinants of health?
State examples of social determinants of health.
*Social determinants of health (SDOH) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes.
Economic stability
Education
Social and community context
Health and health care
Neighborhood and built environment.
Type of work one does
Describe the 4 types of disease prevention.
1.Primordial prevention, which involves preventing the development of risk factors for disease. For the condition of hypertension, primordial prevention would be prevention of abnormal elevations of blood pressure (BP) among normotensive individuals.
2.Primary prevention, which requires modifying existing risk factors to prevent the development of disease—intervening before health effects occur, through measures such as vaccinations, altering risky behaviors (poor eating habits, tobacco use), and banning substances known to be associated with a disease or health condition.
3.Secondary Prevention—screening to identify diseases in the earliest stages, before the onset of signs and symptoms, through measures such as mammography and regular blood pressure testing.
4.Tertiary Prevention—managing disease post diagnosis to slow or stop disease progression through measures such as chemotherapy, rehabilitation, and screening for complications.
It should be noted that while primary prevention activities may be implemented independently of capacity-building in other health care services, this is not the case for secondary prevention.
Screening and early detection is of limited value (and may even be detrimental to the patient) if abnormalities cannot be promptly corrected or treated through services from other parts of the health care system.
Moreover, a good system of primary health care with a registered population facilitates the optimal organization and delivery of accessible population based screening programs and should be vigorously promoted.
Outline the preventation services and activities.
*Prevention services and activities include:
*Vaccination and post-exposure prophylaxis of children, adults and the elderly;
*Provision of information on behavioral and medical health risks, and measures to reduce risks at the individual and population levels;
*Inclusion of disease prevention programmes at primary and specialized health care levels, such as access to preventive services (ex. counselling);
*Nutritional and food supplementation;
*Dental hygiene education and oral health services.
Secondary prevention includes activities such as:
*Population-based screening programmes for early detection of diseases;
*Provision of maternal and child health programmes, including screening and prevention of congenital malformations; and
*Provision of chemo-prophylactic agents to control risk factors (e.g., hypertension)
Why is health promotion more relevant today than ever in addressing public health problems?
Health promotion is more relevant today than ever in addressing public health problems.
The health scenario is positioned at unique crossroads as the world is facing a ‘triple burden of diseases’ constituted by the unfinished agenda of communicable diseases, newly emerging and re-emerging diseases as well as the unprecedented rise of noncommunicable chronic diseases.
Over the past few decades, there is an increasing recognition that biomedical interventions alone cannot guarantee better health.
Why is that so?
Health is heavily influenced by factors outside the domain of the health sector, especially social, economic and political forces.
These forces largely shape the circumstances in which people grow, live, work and age as well as the systems put in place to deal with health needs ultimately leading to inequities in health between and within countries.
What is the attainment of the highest possible standard of heath dependent on?
Thus, the attainment of the highest possible standard of health depends on a comprehensive, holistic approach which goes beyond the traditional curative care, involving communities, health providers and other stakeholders.
Describe the definition of health promotion according to the “Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.”
The Ottawa Charter defined Health Promotion as the process of enabling people to increase control over and to improve their health.
What is needed to be done in order to reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being?
An individual or group must be able to:
*Identify and to realize aspirations
*To satisfy needs
*To change or cope with the environment.
State the elements of health promotion.
This holistic approach should:
*Empower individuals and communities to take actions for their own health
*Foster leadership for public health
*Promote intersectoral action to build healthy public policies
*Create sustainable health systems in the society.
It includes interventions at the personal, organizational, social and political levels to facilitate adaptations (lifestyle, environmental, etc.) conducive to improving or protecting health.
Outline examples of health promotion strategies.
*Policies and interventions to address tobacco, alcohol, physical activity and diet (e.g., alcohol strategy and NCD best-buys)
*Dietary and nutritional intervention should also appropriately tackle malnutrition, defined as a condition that arises from eating a diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess (too high in intake), or in the wrong proportions.
*Intersectoral policies and health services interventions to address mental health and substance abuse
*Strategies to promote sexual and reproductive health, including through health education and increased access to sexual and reproductive health, and family planning services.
*Strategies to tackle domestic violence, including public awareness campaigns; treatment and protection of victims; and linkage with law enforcement and social services.
What is health education?
State the 2 main elements that are tackled by health education.
Health education is about providing health information and knowledge to individuals and communities and providing skills to enable individuals to adopt healthy behaviors voluntarily.
It is a combination of learning experiences designed to help individuals and communities improve their health, by:
*Increasing their knowledge
*Influencing their attitudes
What does makes health promotion different from health education?
Health promotion takes a more comprehensive approach to promoting health by involving various players and focusing on multisectoral approaches.
Health promotion has a much broader perspective and it is tuned to respond to developments which have a direct or indirect bearing on health such as inequities, changes in the patterns of consumption, environments, cultural beliefs, etc
