Chapter 4: Improvements in Health Flashcards
1
Q
Reasons for decreased death rates
A
- Better control of infectious diseases (+ bacteria, viruses)
- Improved hygiene, sanitation and nutrition
- Better understanding of dehydration
2
Q
Reasons for the decline in infant deaths
A
- Improved access and quality of neonatal care
- Increased community awareness
- Improved sanitation and hygiene
- Reduction in preventable diseases due to immunisation
3
Q
Potential years of life lost (PYLLs)
A
- Used to estimate the burden of premature mortality
4
Q
Public health
A
- The organised response by society to protect and promote health, and to prevent illness, injury or disability
- Actions to improve public health in Australia include:
- Improving and protecting the quality of the water we drink
- Improving immunisation levels of a population
- Implementing screening programs for diseases
- Implementing anti-smoking education campaigns
NOTE: Efforts to improve public health typically target the factors that cause illness rather than treating their consequences.
5
Q
Public health intelligence, programs and infrastructure
A
- Intelligence – information that identifies trends of ill-health and health in the population and information about the factors
- Programs – development of policy and the planning of strategies that aim to prevent, protect and promote health
- Infrastructue – includes administrative, legislative, information, research and program-delivery systems, and the workforce to implement them
6
Q
‘Old’ public health
A
- Focus on infrastructure, shelter, water and sanitation
- Focus on the prevention and treatment of ilness
- Health is seen as the absence of illness
- Concerned with improving conditions of poor and special-needs groups
- Involves the BMH
NOTE: The different eras are not examinable.
7
Q
New public health
A
- Focus on social support, behaviour and lifestyles
- Focus on disease prevention and health promotion
- Concerned with all threats to health, as well as sustainability and viability of physical environment
- Explicit focus on equity
- Elevated due to increased awareness about the role that lifestyle factors play in influencing our health
- Individuals are encouraged to take responsibility for their health
- Involves the BMH, SMH and OCHP
8
Q
Biomedical approach to health
A
- Focuses on physical aspects of disease and illness
- Associated with diagnosis, cure and treatment
- Diagnosis – identification of disease via medical tests
- Cure & treatment – interventions taken to control illness
- E.g. blood tests, x-rays and chemotherapy
9
Q
Strengths and limitations of the BMH
A
-
Strengths
- Provides treatment for many conditions (↑ LE)
- Helps us learn more about disease and illness
- Can reduce the time people spend in ill health
- Advances in medical technology
-
Limitations
- Incurs ongoing expenses which can be expensive
- Not every illness or disease can be cured/treated
- Views the body in isolation to the environment
- Does not always promote equity
10
Q
Social model of health
A
- Directing effort towards social, economic and environmental determinants of health
- Works alongside the biomedical model
- E.g. smoking education campaigns
11
Q
Key principles of the social model of health
AREAS
A
-
Addressing the broad determinants of health
- Considering biological, sociocultural and environmental factors and how they influence the HWB whole communities, not just individuals
- Society is able to share responsibility for health and promote health among the most vulnerable
-
Reducing social inequities
- Providing all groups with the same access to resources
-
Empowering individuals and communities
- Providing resources and knowledge to give people the opportunity to improve their HWB
-
Access to healthcare
- Everybody having access to essential healthcare services
- Inter-Sectorial collaboration
- Collaboration between public and private sectors of the economy to achieve health-related goals
12
Q
Strengths and limitations of the SMH
A
-
Strengths
- Aims to improve health by preventing, not treating illness
- Focus on populations rather than individuals
- Typically more cost-effective
- Promotes equity (focus on vulnerable groups)
-
Limitations
- Hereditary conditions cannot be prevented
- Health promotion campaigns are not always be successful
- Relies on individuals making good choices
13
Q
Relationship between the BMH and the SMH
A
-
Biomedical model
- Research a disease and effective treatment options
- Accurate diagnosis of disease through medical tests
- Provision of appropriate treatment
- Improvements in radiation therapy/chemotherapy
- Developing stem cells that can grow new organs for transplants
-
Social model
- Promote healthy lifestyles using the media and GPs
- Providing ads in various languages and forms
- Introducing compulsory wearing of seatbelts
- Increasing taxation of tobacco/alcohol
- Banning smoking in public spaces
- Legislations to fence swimming pools
NOTE: The two models can work concurrently to achieve a common goal.
14
Q
Ottowa Charter for Health Promotion
A
- Developed from the social model of health
- Defines health promotion as ‘the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health’
- 3 health promotion strategies: enabling, mediating and advocacy
15
Q
Three basic strategies for health promotion
Ottowa Charter
A
- Enable – supporting people with the information, opportunities, resources and skills they need to make health-promoing choices
- Mediate – optimal health is not ensured by the health sector alone, and requires coordinated action by all levels of government non- government organisations, industry and the media
- Advocate – promoting initiatives that promote health on behalf of the whole community and protecting health as a resource
