Personal Health Quiz 1

Public Health

The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organized community effort

What is “the substance of public health”

the “organized community efforts
aimed at the prevention of disease and the promotion of health

What are some of the components of the health protection era (Antiquity - 1830s)

There were organized community efforts to prevent disease, and efforts of prevention were integrated into their culture, religion, and laws

What are some of the components of the Hygiene Movement (1840s-1870s)?

There was more public health awareness in Europe and the U.S, concepts of disease as the consequence of social conditions took root, and early epidemiological studies started to
point towards the importance of hygiene

What did John Snow help establish?

In the 1850s, John Snow helped establish the
importance of careful data collection and
documentation of rates of disease before and after
an intervention in order to evaluate effectiveness.

What are two of John Snow’s accomplishments?

He discovered the water well was contaminated with cholera and closed down the Broad Street pump, terminating a local epidemic of cholera

What was a major cause of maternal mortality?

Puerperal fever

Who noted that physicians frequently went
from the autopsy room to the delivery room without
washing their hands, and instituted a handwashing
procedure that reduced the frequency of puerperal
fever?

Ignaz Semmelwei

True or false: Semmelwei was able to convince many of his contemporaries to accept this intervention without a clear mechanism of action.

False

What are some components of the Contagion Control era (1880-1940s)?

Development of the germ theory of disease, new diagnostic techniques were established, and concepts of vaccination advanced with the
development of new vaccines against toxins
produced by tetanus- and diphtheria-causing
bacteria

Who developed the germ theory of disease?

Louis Pasteur and his European colleagues in the second half of the 1800s

What is a downside to this era?

Without antibiotics or other effective cures, much of public health in this era relied on prevention, isolation of those with disease, and case-finding
methods to prevent further exposure.

What is the main component of the “Filling Holes in Medical Care” era (1950-mid 1980s)?

The role of public health was often seen as assisting clinicians to effectively deliver clinical services to those without the benefits of private medical care and helping to integrate preventive efforts into the practice of medicine

What defines the “Health/Disease Prevention” era (mid-1980s-2000s)

This era was characterized by a focus on individual responsibility for health and interventions at the individual level.

What are some of the components of the "Population Health” era (2000s)?

It was marked by systems thinking that responded to emerging technologies and health challenges, and focused on community-wide or population-wide public health efforts

What is population health?

All the ways society and communities within society are affected by and respond to health issues

Population health utilizes a what-based approach to analyze determinants of health and disease and options for intervention to preserve and improve health

Evidence-based approach

What things do not count as data?

References, data, lists of variables or constructs, diagrams, or hypotheses

What are the four components whenever we discuss a health topic?

Health, population, examples of society-wide concerns, and examples of vulnerable

The high-risk approach focuses on what?

The high-risk approach focuses on those with the
highest probability of developing disease and aims
to bring their risk close to the levels experienced by
the rest of the population.

The Improving the average approach focuses on what?

The improving-the-average approach assumes that everyone is at some degree of risk and the risk increases with the extent of exposure. In this situation, most of the disease occurs among the large number of people who have only modestly increased exposure

Any action we take to prevent disease,
disability, or death may be referred to as what?

Intervention

What is the single most important factor influencing the causes of death and disability?

Age

Health interventions can be divided into what three categories?

Healthcare, traditional public health, and social interventions

Services delivered as part of clinical prevention are what?

vaccinations, behavioral counseling, screening for disease, and preventive medications

What have been the key areas of focus of traditional public health approaches?

Communicable disease control, reduction of environmental hazards, food and drug safety, and nutritional and behavioral risk factors