Health

Question 1

What are the effects of heart disease?

Answer 1

• heart disease lowers the life expectancy of the whole country
• heart problems can force people to be off work costing industry money
• this will then cost more money in out of work benefits
• health care will also cost a lot as patients spend lots of time in hospital and heart operations are very expensive
• this means less money to spend on other things like education and infrastructure within the country
• heart disease obviously affects people’s quality of life

Question 2

What are the strategies to control heart disease?

Answer 2

• people are offered regular check-ups for blood pressure and cholesterol which allows early intervention for at risk patients
• health campaigns like ‘5 a day’ and giving pensioners cheap gym memberships are encouraging people to eat healthier and be healthier
• healthy eating is encouraged in schools hoping that children will learn good eating habits for life
• advanced medical equipment are more available like heart valves/stents/pacemakers
• advanced operations are more available like by-passes and heart-transplants
• new drugs to strengthen the arteries of the heart or to thin the blood to prevent clotting are now available

Question 3

How successful are these strategies?

Answer 3

• in the under 75’s deaths from heart disease have reduced by 40% since the year 2000
• anti-smoking policies have greatly reduced the amount of smokers and people are less affected by passive smoke
• people appear to be getting more regular check-ups if they are prone to heart disease
• the problem of men not going to get check-ups from the doctor is improving
• in Scotland we still have huge problems with alcohol abuse
• there is no evidence that stress levels are dropping, many show the opposite

Question 4

What are the causes of HIV/aids?

Answer 4

• Drug users sharing dirty needles
• having unprotected sex with an infected person
• babies drinking the breast milk of an infected woman
• infected blood transfusions
• infection can be passed on from mother to foetus during pregnancy
• lack of education on how the disease is transmitted

Question 5

What are the impacts of aids?

Answer 5

• People are unable to work and become a burden on their families
• infected people cannot earn money which is needed for medicines and care
• people die younger so contribute less tax to the country
• costs the country lots of money paying for health campaigns to deal with aids
• resources which could have been spent on things like education need to be spent on dealing with aids
• reduces the life expectancy in a country and the quality of people’s lives within the country

Question 6

Strategies to reduce the spread of aids

Answer 6

• health education programmes through TV and radio programmes
• free testing for HIV
• distribution of free condoms
• needle exchange programmes
• ARV drugs are available in most countries
• the world bank has given money to many developing world countries to tackle the disease

Question 7

How effective are these strategies?

Answer 7

• very effective in developed world where infection rates have dropped as they can afford to educate people about the disease and also give out drugs needles and condoms to combat the spread of the disease
• less effective in developing world because:
• many people are still unaware they have the disease so it spreads rapidly
• testing facilities can be poor which helps the disease spread
• the cost of drugs/condoms stops many people getting access to them

Question 8

Explain the physical factors that cause the spread of malaria

Answer 8

• malaria is spread by the female anopheles mosquito. If the mosquito feeds on a person with the malarial parasite it will then pick up this parasite and pass it onto the next person it feeds from
• temperatures must be between 15C and 40C for the mosquito to survive. All year round warm and moist conditions are perfect for the mosquito
• the mosquito need stagnant water to lay their larvae to breed. The love marshland which provides ideal conditions for them
• the mosquito also needs shaded areas to digest our blood after a meal

Question 9

Explain the human factors which cause the spread of malaria

Answer 9

• mosquitoes need people close by for a food source
• poverty also causes malaria and some countries can’t afford to try and stop the disease spreading as they have no money to buy drugs or nets
• many developing world countries have shanty towns which are ideal for mosquitoes as there are lots of people and stagnant waste water
• new strains of malaria can also spread around the world very quickly due to planes

Question 10

Impacts of malaria

Answer 10

• people are unable to work and become a burden on their families. They can’t earn money, work on the farm and money has to be spent on medicine for them
• people die younger so contribute less tax to the country
• costs the country money paying for health campaigns and health care to deal with malaria
• resources which have been spent on things like education need to be spent on dealing with malaria

Question 11

What are the causes of heart disease?

Answer 11

POOR DIET
•fatty foods cause people to put on weight which increases the strain on the heart

SMOKING
•narrows the arteries putting increasing pressure on the heart

LIFESTYLE AND STRESS
•stress increases blood pressure which puts a strain on the heart

LACK OF EXERCISE
•this can lead to people becoming overweight which puts a huge strain on the heart
•it can also raise blood pressure and cholesterol levels

GENETIC FACTORS
•some people inherit a predisposition to developing heart disease from their parents