Public Health Midterm

Assessment

identify community health problems

Policy development

develop policies to address public health problems

assurance

enforce laws and regulations and evaluate the effectiveness of them

primary prevention

prevent illness or injury from occurring at all

secondary prevention

minimize severity of illness

tertiary prevention

minimize disability and further poor outcomes

tragedy of the commons

benefitting yourself by overusing shared resources

social justice

universal access, everybody is entitled to a basic package of services, run by the government

market justic

no universal access, individual responsibility, employer based health insurance

distribution

how the disease spreads across populations

incidence

new cases over time

prevalence

total cases in a specific time

cross sectional study

data collected at one point in time

cohort study

a group of individuals is followed over time to evaluate relationship between exposure and an outcome

case control study

compares group with disease to group without

randomized control trial

randomly assigned to experimental, treatment, or control group

ecological studies

analyzes data of populations or groups

sensitivity

the ability to correctly identify those with the disease, minimizing false negatives

specificity

the ability to correctly identify those without the disease, minimizing false positives

socioecological model

health outcomes are determined by the interaction between individuals and their environments across multiple levels

social cognitive theory

learning through observation and the environment

transtheoretical model

stages of change which includes precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance

police powers

the authority of the government to protect public health, safety, and welfare

public health agencies

CDC, NIH, FDA

NGO’s

WHO, doctors without borders, american red cross

epidemiologic surveillance

continuous systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data

passive surveillance

providers report cases

active surveillance

health agencies actively search for cases

syndromic surveillance

tracks symptoms before diagnosis

notifiable disease

a disease must be reported to government authorities when diagnoses

risk factors

characteristics or exposures that increase the likelihood of disease

prospective study

starts now and follows people forward in time ex. study smokers vs nonsmokers over 10 years to see who develops lung disease

retrospective study

looks backward in time using existing data

confounding variable

a third variable that distorts the relationship between exposure and outcome

selection bias

when the study sample is not representative of the population

reporting bias

when people don’t report information correctly

recall bias

when people don’t remember past events correctly

tuskegee syphilis study

men were told they were being treated for bad blood but in reality researchers were just observing their disease progression with no proper treatment

what was the outcome of the tuskegee syphilis study

led to requirements for informed consent and IRBs

pellagra study

hypothesized that pellagra was caused by poor diet while people believed it was due to dirty living conditions, he discovered that people with low protein diets developed the disease

conflicts of interest

when researchers have personal or financial interests that could bias results

power

the probability that a study correctly detects a real effect

risk assessment

objective evaluation of risk using data

risk perception

how people subjectively feel about risk

NCHS

primary agency that collects, analyzes, and reports data on the health of americans

vital statistics

government recorded data to track population health, mortality rates, demographic changes

NHANES

national survey where people answer interview questions, get physically examines, blood/urine test

BRFSS

state based phone survey that collects self reported health behaviors/conditions

leading cause of death VS actual

leading: heart disease Actual: poor diet

whitehall study

studied british civil servants and discovered that lower job status meant worse health and higher mortality

self efficacy

confidence in your ability to perform a behavior