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Public Health Test #1 (ch 1-2, 9-10)

Terms in this set (45)

1. Explain the two main goals of public health and provide examples of each
to promote and protect health, promote ex. = dietary guidelines for healthy eating, school programs to recycle and promote health. protect ex. = protection from disease, getting immunized, prtecting the environment
2. What are some of the factors that make something a public health issue?
health effects that vulnerable populations have no control over but can be helped by ph intervention
3. Explain the major differences between medical care and public health. In particular, explain how these two approaches think about health problems differently and explain how they each demonstrate success.
medical care focuses on immediate issues of health (ER) and has seeable results while public health does not usually have seeable results but focuses on lifestyle of the population and how health can be improved
4. Explain each of the 3 core functions of public health.
1. assessment (the diagnostic function) - public health agency collects analyzes and makes data available on the health of the population e.g. disease tracking, community assessment
2. policy development - policy or intervention development, developing plans to improve a communities health
3. assurance - the public health system must ensure that services are available to the public. services = environ., educational and basic medical care
5. Explain each of the 10 essential services of public health and be able to provide an example for each. (first 5)
assessment (1-2) 1. monitor health status to identify community health probs, 2. diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community
Policy development (3-5) - 3. inform, educate and empower people about health issues, 4. mobilize community partnerships to identify and solve health problems, 5. develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts
Explain each of the 10 essential services of public health and be able to provide an example for each. (6-10)
Assurance (6-9) - 6. enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety, 7. link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable, 8. assure a competent public health and personal healthcare workforce, 9. evaulate effectiveness , accessibility and quality of personal and population-based health services
Serving all functions (10) 10. research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems
6. What is the relationship between the 3 core functions and the 10 essential services?
the 3 core functions are the general basis for the 10 essential services
7. What is morbidity?
morbidity is illness, 2 or more = comorbidity. morbidities are not deaths, we usually measure morbidity by prevalence: how many people in a set pop have a particular illness at a certain point
What is mortality?
mortality is death. Most often the death rate of a certain disease or condition
Measured at a set point of time. For example the mortality rate for AA is x/100000
9. What are risk factors? Provide examples of several risk factors for each of these diseases: HIV/AIDS, CTE and other traumatic brain injury, type II diabetes
any characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases their likelihood of developing a disease or injury
• Ex. high blood pressure, smoking, binge drinking, not practicing safe sex, speeding, not using safety equipment in lab
10. What are protective factors? Provide examples of several risk factors for each of these diseases: HIV/AIDS, CTE and other traumatic brain injury, type II diabetes
Protective factors are conditions or attributes (skills, strengths, resources, supports or coping strategies) in individuals, families, communities or the larger society that help people deal more effectively with stressful events and mitigate or eliminate risk in families and communities. having safe sex, using safety equiptment, not smoking , not drinking excessively etc.
11. Define the 3 levels of public health prevention and provide examples for each.
Primary , secondary and tertiary prevention
primary prevention
(individual - ex. defensive driving class for individuals)
o Encouraging healthy diet, handwashing, immunizations, promoting teeth brushing and adding fluoride to city water, federal school lunch program, mandate recess time, eliminating standing water
Secondary prevention
o Finding the disease or condition as soon as possible and halting its progress
o Ex. mammograms, colonoscopies, post heart attack aspirin regimen
Tertiary prevention
o Reduce or control for on-going illness or conditions to attain highest possible quality of life and /or improved life expectancy ex. chemo
12. Which level(s) or prevention does public health focus on most? Why?
primary prevention , promoting and protecting health of populations as soon as possible
Chapter 2 START
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1. What is "social justice"?
o Concerned with the collective wellbeing of a society
o All people should receive the same basic health protections regardless of age, employment status, race, religion, gender etc.
2. Explain the difference between market justice and social justice. Which is the value system that underlies public health?
social justice - o Concerned with the collective wellbeing of a society
o All people should receive the same basic health protections regardless of age, employment status, race, religion, gender etc.
Market justice - o Concerned with individual wellbeing
o This idea of justice is common in US culture
o People are not necessarily entitled to anything because people should only get the income, housing, education and health protections they work for and can afford
The social justice value system underlies public health because of the importance of collective wellbeing
3. Why is public health controversial? Explain examples of how economic impacts, individual freedom, politics, and cultural/moral/religious issues can affect public health efforts to address particular health problems
Often public health measures are requirements that restrict peoples freedom for the purpose of protecting their own health and safety, it may challenge peoples values and demand sacrificies, protections may tax industry, they also may arouse moral or religious objections
a. What is the Union of Concerned Scientists? What controversies happened with them that are relevant to ch.2?
a nonprofit advocacy group, released a report called "Scientific Integrity in
Policymaking," which was signed by more than 60 leading scientists, including 20
Nobel Prize winners
The report documented many instances of the administration's
misrepresentation or suppression of scientific information and stacking of scientific
advisory committees to obscure the fact that policy decisions were based on its
political agenda, which usually favored right-wing constituencies and large
corporations.
pressure on the CDC to promote abstince only programs, hiv prevention cited condom breaking and advocated abstinence
4. What is the "tragedy of the commons"? Explain this idea and why it is relevant to public health.
Government restrictions on behavior that causes indirect harm to others is the way to
prevent what Garrett Hardin, in 1968, called the "tragedy of the commons."The only way for
the community to save the pasture is to agree to restrict the freedom of the herdsmen,
placing fair and equitable limits on the number of cattle each can keep there.
In the industrialized world of today, the "commons" is the air, water, and other
elements of the environment that all people share. Because no individual has the power
to control the quality of his or her own personal environment independent of the
behavior of his or her neighbors, government action is required to protect these
common resources.
Essentially asking what needs to be protected?
Chapters 9 and 10 BEGIN
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1. What is the difference between infectious/communicable disease and noncommunicable disease? Also provide examples of each.
infections/communicable disease - major killers in the past, ex. bubonic plague, tb, smallpox, cholera, typhoid
noncommunicable - chronic disease - stroke cancer, obesity , diabetes etc.
2. In what ways has public health successfully conquered infectious disease? List a few successes.
o 1. Improvements in sanitation and hygiene
o The discovery of antibiotics
o Impelemntation of universal childhood cvaccination programs
erradication of polio
3. In what ways does public health still face challenges in dealing with infectious disease? List a few reasons.
o Antibiotic resistance
o Anti-vaccine movement
o Hiv/aids
o Emerging infectious diseases
4. Overall, have deaths due to communicable diseases increased or decreased over time compared to non-communicable chronic diseases?
noncommunicable diseases have increased as compared to communicable diseases
5. Compare the major causes of death in 1900 to major causes of death in the late 1990's (hint: see week 3 slides)
major killers in the past: plague , tb, smallpox, cholera, measles, influenza , typoid
many conquered in the 60s by immunizations, antibiotics, now we are dealing with chronic noncommunicable diseases such as cancer and obesity
6. What are the 3 major disease control techniques used by public health to reduce the spread of infectious disease?
o 1. Improvements in sanitation and hygiene
o 2. The discovery of antibiotics
o 3. Impelemntation of universal childhood cvaccination programs
indirect vs direct transmission
Direct contact transmission occurs when there is physical contact between an infected person and a susceptible person. Indirect contact transmission occurs when there is no direct human-to-human contact. (mode of transmission)
7. Define each link on the chain of infection and provide an example for each:
a. Pathogen/infectious agent
b. Reservoir
c. Portal of exit
d. Mode of transmission

e. Portal of entry
f. Susceptible host
Pathogen/infectious agent
(link 1) the disease
Reservoir
(link 2) the place in which the agent normally lives, grows and multiplies ex. humans, animals, environment (e.g. water sources, elevator buttons, food etc)
Portal of exit
(link 3) the path of which the pathogen leaves the host
Method of Transmission
o The way an organism transfers from one reservoir to another
o This can be either
1. Direct transmission - direct contact between infectious host and susceptible hostor close range droplet spread
2. Indirect transmission - involves an intermediate carrior
Portal of entry
(link 5 ) this is the way a pathogen enters a susceptible host
Susceptible host
(link 6 ) o The person who is at risk for developing an infection from the disease
o Factors making a person more susceptible to disease
Age
Underlying chronic diseases
Conditions that weaken the immune system like hiv
Genetics
Certain types of meds
8. What are factors that make some hosts more susceptible than others to illness in the chain of infection?
genetic immunity, vaccinations , defective immune systems,
9. For each of the six links on the chain of infection, provide one example of a public health intervention that could "break the chain" and stop the spread of infection. Examples-- which link does each break?:
pathogen - antibiotics to kill pathogen
reservoir - water purification systems
portal of exit - covering your mouth when you sneeze
method of transmission - keeping areas clean by disinfecting
portal of entry - hand hygiene, personal hygiene, long sleeves
susceptible host - immunization of children
10. What is antibiotic resistance and why is it a public health issue?
The process by which
bacteria become resistant to an antibiotic is a splendid example of evolution in action.
In the presence of an antibiotic drug, any mutation that allows a single bacterium to
survive confers on it a tremendous selective advantage. That bacterium can then
reproduce without competition from other microbes, transmitting the mutation to its
offspring. The result is a strain of the bacteria that is resistant to that particular
antibiotic. Because antibiotics can sometimes not work and people can die
a. Roughly how many people are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria per year? And roughly how many people die from these infections per year?
2 million per year, 23,000 deaths per year
b. What are the major factors that contribute to the increase in antibiotic resistance?
when people overuse antibiotics, such as using them to fight viral infections (they only work on bacterial onfections) and not taking the full prescribed course of antibiotics (stopping early because they feel better)
11. Why is the fear of vaccines and the growing anti-vaccine movement in the US a public health issue?
a. Your answer should include an understanding of herd/community immunity
drug comanies dont want to invest in vaccines, if a large population is not vaccinated then there can be an issue with preventable dieseases coming back
12. Why was the political response to HIV/AIDS so slow?
conservatives, fda had its first hiv drug approved in the late 80s, homophobia
13. Even though it is hard to cure AIDS, there are 3 good public health efforts at each of the 3 levels of prevention already. Explain each of these medications and what levels of prevention they are:
a. Antiretroviral therapy
b. Pre-exposure prophylaxis
c. Post-exposure prophylaxis
antiretroviral therapy (AZT) - secondary prevention , interferes with the replication of HIV by inhibiting the enzyme that copies the viral RNA into the cells DNA
preexposure prophylaxis - primary prevention, taking a pill everyday
post-exposure prophylaxis - medication taken after possible exposure to HIV, you take a pill, secondary prevention
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