Pubic Healt

Weekly Overview

Week Three

Overview

There are many factors that can affect health, such as genetics, behavior, environment, and available services. These are called determinants of health, which must be taken into account while looking at the health of populations since they can have both positive and negative influences. Any combination of these determinants can greatly impact a population’s health. For example, communicable diseases have long been affected by determinants, especially low socio-economic status. Any attempt to change health outcomes requires appropriate changes to determinants.

What you will cover

1. Factors Affecting Public and Community Health

a. Identify environmental factors that influence the health and wellness of populations.

1) Health determinants

a) 19th-century effect of study of social and behavioral sciences

b) Industrial revolution in Europe and America

(1) Social and economic inequalities

(2) Social justice

(3) Intellectual studies such as human behavior

c) 20th-century effect from cost of health care, to limited providers, and to complex access to care

2) Environmental effect: implies all influences other than genetic, including social, economic, and cultural; may refer to physical environment

a) Natural or unaltered; sunlight and water

b) Many alterations occurring

(1) Water treatment

(2) Awareness of skin cancer and sunscreens

(3) Altered by chemicals such as pesticides

(4) Built-result of human constructions, such as home injuries

c) Motor vehicle accidents and exposure to toxic substances: two causes of death that represent the largest known effect of the physical environment

d) Ecological risk assessment

e) Interaction analysis approach to environmental diseases: an assessment that reviews consequences of two or more exposures

f) Systems analysis approach to environmental health and safety: an approach used to explore the interconnections between exposure or components of larger set of connections

b. Describe current communicable disease threats and efforts to control their effects.

1) Noncommunicable diseases represent a wide range of diseases from cardiovascular disease to cancers to depression, Alzheimer’s, and chronic arthritis. They represent a majority of deaths and disability.

a) Death

b) Chronic disabilities

c) Prevention, curative, and rehabilitative approaches

(1) Screening for early detection and treatment

(2) Multiple risk factor interventions

(3) Identification of cost-effective treatments

(4) Genetics counseling and intervention

(5) Research

d) Disease patterns

e) Epidemiological transition

2) Communicable disease: fluctuation in numbers of deaths and disabilities between 20th and 21st centuries

a) Current threats

(1) HIV and AIDS

(2) Influenza

(3) E. coli

(4) MRSA

b) Public health tools to address communicable disease

(1) Barrier protection

(2) Immunizations

(3) Screening and case finding

(4) Treatment and contact treatment

c) Efforts to maximize effectiveness of treatments and prevent resistance

c. Explain the influence of lifestyles, socioeconomic status, and community resources on public and community health.

1) Socioeconomic status in the community

a) Family income: lower-income brackets have more challenges with access to care and payment for treatment, thus the effect on emergency departments

b) Educational level: lower level has effect on knowledge of health care treatment plans, or understanding risks and benefits of any treatment plan

c) Professional status

2) Lifestyles of individuals that affect community health

a) Smoking

b) Drinking

c) Illicit drug use

d) Intense pace

e) Many families with both parents working

f) Fast food or quick dinners, or no time to sit for dinner

3) Culture in the community

a) Globalization of our communities: pockets of other cultures in key geographic areas

b) Traditional and cultural approaches to health

c) Acceptance of interventions

d) Cultural influences on health practices

4) Religious groups present in certain communities

a) Various religious beliefs

b) Association with community leadership

c) Relationship with other community resources, such as schools

5) Linking process of change to outcomes of improved prevention and health maintenance by individuals and groups.

a) Change and behavior modification

(1) Positive reinforcement

(2) Negative reinforcement

(3) Group therapy, such as Weight Watchers®

b) Stages of change

(1) Lewin’s change theory steps

(a) Freeze

(b) Unfreeze

(c) Refreeze

(2) Deming’s model

(a) Plan

(b) Do

(c) Change

(d) Analyze

c) Social marketing

(1) Diffusion of innovation theory

(2) Group verses individual approaches to change

(3) Socioeconomic, cultural and religious effects on change management, including resistance and the failure to accept the philosophy or practice