DQ-M4-Reply

Please reply to– Vanessa R. Please note minimum of 200 words. No APA or sources citation needed.

Vanessa R posted:

When we think of health, we may think of many different things in relation to it. Family health history, race and ethnicity, living conditions, community, school, work, etc. all can greatly impact our health. Social determinants are very important to be aware of when dealing with health. Social determinants of health are “conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks” (Social Determinants of Health). How are social determinants of health directly related to our health? Well, for example, a construction worker working on a site with heavily polluted air may face lung related health problems if he withstands prolonged exposure compared to an office worker that works in her own cubicle and practices diligent hand hygiene. If social determinants of health are healthy things such as a clean living condition, a safe workplace, and an overall healthy community, they affect our health in a positive way. However, if social determinants are unhealthy things such as dirty living conditions, polluted and dangerous workplaces, and an ill community, they can affect our health in a negative way. 

The goal of social determinants is to keep them healthy and positive to avoid infection. Unfortunately, infection may still happen. Infections may not happen instantly, but can be the result of unhealthy social determinants. It’s important to note the chain of infection. The chain of infection in order is the infectious agent, reservoir, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry, and susceptible host (Menu). The infectious agent is the pathogen that causes disease. The reservoir is the environment where the pathogen resides. The portal of exit is how the pathogen is able to leave its reservoir. The mode of transmission is the way in which the pathogen can be passed on. The portal of entry is the way the pathogen can enter a host. The susceptible host is any vulnerable person that the pathogen may enter (Menu). Community health nurses aim to break this chain in its earliest steps. We commonly see it broken in the mode of transmission. For example, with covid, community health nurses have stressed the importance of hand hygiene and wearing masks around infected individuals. The reason being that covid is known to spread through droplets and its believed there is a contact component if an individual has direct contact with droplets of an infected individual. By hand washing which kills the mode of transmission via contact and wearing masks which kills the mode of transmission via droplets, covid is unable to spread rampanently from host to host.

References

Menu. infectionpreventionandyou.org. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2022, from https://infectionpreventionandyou.org/protect-your-patients/break-the-chain-of-infection/ 

Social Determinants of Health. Social Determinants of Health | Healthy People 2020. (n.d.). Retrieved August 24, 2022, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/social-determinants-of-health 

Please reply to– Brittany F. Please note minimum of 200 words. No APA or sources citation needed.

Brittany F posted:

Social determinants of health are non-medical factors that have an effect on the health outcomes of people. Everyone lives in different environments to determine these aspects. There are social determinants such as income, education, employment, housing and developments that can affect a person’s health. These influences are impacting the lifestyle choices and different care options that can come about. Some are not knowledgeable on things to do, not having access to health care, sanitation in their living environment or even just basic things like heat, electricity and other factors. Many people are not able to meet daily needs or have the recourses available like others do. Some people are not able to meet their daily needs as well. Food and housing are not always available to everyone and some do not realize that. Each person has individual circumstances that determine how their health is impacted. These extensive range of factors can influence every aspect of their health. By contrast, the many social determinants of health play a much bigger role in influencing a person’s health, making up 80–90% of the contributing factors (Lucyk, K., & McLaren, L.,2017). Being able to identify these factors in your community will help resolve many of the issues that come from it.

The chain of infection refers to a disease and how it spreads in certain environments. The chain of infection consists of 6 links, it starts with an infectious agent or pathogen and without using some type of disinfectant to stop this chain from moving forward you will move done the chain. Next, you have the reservoir, which is a natural environment like a person, animal or component like water that gives the pathogen a place to survive. To stop at this chain of infection, there would have to be testing done or treatment to eradicate the pathogen. The next link is the portal of exit. This is where the pathogen leaves that reservoir. This can happen through mucous membranes, discharge of some sort or things like blood. The way to break this chain would be to use barrier methods. The next link in the chain is means of transmission. This happens through close contact and can happy directly or indirectly. Avoiding contact with infectious people or just washing your hands can help prevent this. The next link in the chain of infection is portal of entry and with this the pathogen enters either by penetration, inhaling or ingesting it. And the final link is a new host. Several factors take part in this and how bad the pathogen takes place. Having a weak immune system is an example of how easily the infection can take over the new host or even being healthy can help prevent that infection. Being immunized, seeking medical treatment or having a healthy lifestyle can help prevent the link from exceeding.

Seeing these factors shows how the social determinants have such a large impact on how health is. Not having clean water or sanitary living situations are just one example of how this occurs, then adding in factors such as not having access to medical treatment and things like that just make the health of the community worsen.

 

 

                                                    References

Lucyk, K., & McLaren, L. (2017). Taking stock of the social determinants of health: A scoping review. PloS one, 12(5), e0177306. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177306