Public Health History, Organizations, and Epidemiology Overview

Vocabulary flashcards covering public health history, core functions, health organizations, and foundational epidemiology concepts from PH 40 lectures.

Health

A dynamic state or condition of the human organism that is multidimensional in nature (e.g., physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, occupational), serves as a resource for living, and results from a person's interactions with and adaptations to their environment.

Community

A group of people who have common characteristics (such as location, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, interest in particular problems, or common bonds) characterized by membership, shared symbol systems, shared values and norms, mutual influence, shared needs, and shared emotional connection.

Physical Factors

Determinants that affect the health of a community through geography, environment, community size, and industrial development.

Social and Cultural Factors

Determinants that affect the health of a community through beliefs, traditions, prejudices, economy, politics, religion, social norms, and socioeconomic status.

Community/Public Health Activities

Activities aimed at protecting or improving the health of a population or community, such as maintaining birth and death records and protecting the food and water supply.

Personal Health Activities

Individual actions and decision-making that affect the health of an individual and their immediate networks, such as walking 10,000 steps a day or getting immunized.

Community Organizing

A process through which communities are assisted in identifying common problems or goals, and then developing and implementing strategies for reaching those collectively set goals.

Hippocrates

An ancient Greek physician who stated around 400 BC that disease can be caused by environmental factors (such as weather and water quality) and health practices (such as diet and exercise).

Onesimus

An enslaved African man who in 1721 demonstrated smallpox inoculation in Boston by infecting healthy people with pus from a smallpox patient to produce immunity.

Edward Jenner

A doctor who in 1796 demonstrated smallpox vaccination by infecting individuals with scabs from cowpox-infected dairy maids.

John Snow

An English physician who in 1849 mapped cholera cases in London to the Broad Street water pump supplied by the polluted Thames River.

William Du Bois

A sociologist who was among the first to declare that health disparities between Black and White Americans resulted from social conditions and racism rather than inherent biological traits.

Health Resources Development Period

The public health era from 1900 to 1960 marked by growth in health care facilities, public health nursing, the Social Security Act of 1935, and the founding of the CDC in 1946.

Period of Social Engineering

The public health era from 1960 to 1973 during which the federal government increased involvement in health matters, including establishing Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

Period of Health Promotion

The public health era from 1974 to the present focusing on lifestyle and health behaviors to prevent premature death, marked by publications such as Healthy People 2020 and 2030.

Public Health Preparedness

The ability of the public health system, community, and individuals to prevent, protect against, quickly respond to, and recover from health emergencies.

Governmental Health Agencies

Health organizations that are part of the government structure (federal, state, or local), funded primarily by tax dollars, managed by government officials, and holding authority over a geographic area.

Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)

The primary national health agency in the United States, headed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services and managing approximately 25% of the federal budget.

Quasi-Governmental Health Organizations

Organizations that operate independently of government supervision but derive some funding and duties from the government, such as the American Red Cross and National Science Foundation.

Non-Governmental Health Agencies

Health agencies funded by private donations or membership dues that operate free from governmental interference to address specific unmet health needs.

Voluntary Health Agencies

Non-governmental organizations created by concerned citizens to meet specific health needs through fundraising, education, patient services, and advocacy (e.g., ACS, AHA, March of Dimes).

Professional Health Organizations

Organizations composed of health professionals with specialized training, certification, or licensure whose mission is to promote high standards of practice (e.g., AMA, APHA).

Philanthropic Foundations

Endowed institutions that donate money for human welfare by funding programs and research on prevention, control, and treatment of diseases (e.g., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).

World Health Organization (WHO)

The primary international governmental health agency, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, whose objective is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.

Core Functions of Public Health

The three primary responsibilities of public health: Assessment, Policy Development, and Assurance.

Assessment

The core public health function focused on monitoring population health, diagnosing health problems, and investigating health hazards in the community.

Policy Development

The core public health function focused on informing, educating, and empowering people, mobilizing community partnerships, and formulating policies and plans that support community health.

Assurance

The core public health function focused on enforcing laws, linking people to needed care, ensuring a competent workforce, and evaluating health services.

Epidemiology

The study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events (including disease) in specified populations, and the application of this study to control health problems.

Morbidity

The occurrence of sickness, disease, disability, or injury in a population.

Mortality

The occurrence of death in a population.

Descriptive Epidemiology

The study of the pattern and distribution of health events in a population by person, place, and time (who, where, when, and what) to generate hypotheses.

Analytic Epidemiology

The branch of epidemiology that investigates hypotheses about causes of disease by comparing groups to evaluate relationships between exposures and diseases.

Spot Map (Place of Employment)

An epidemiologic map where dots represent disease cases based on workplace location, as seen in Maxcy's 1926 study of typhus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Spot Map (Place of Residence)

An epidemiologic map where dots represent disease cases based on home address, as seen in Maxcy's 1926 study of typhus in Montgomery, Alabama.

Periodic Changes

Recurrent variations in disease frequency that show a consistent, cyclic pattern over hours, days, seasons, or years.

Episodic Changes

Non-periodic variations in disease frequency, such as epidemics or localized outbreaks.

Count

A basic epidemiologic statistic representing the plain number of cases of a health event.

Ratio

A mathematical value created by dividing one number by another, where the numerator is not required to be a subset of the denominator.

Proportion

A specific type of ratio in which the numerator is a subset of the denominator.

Rate

A specialized ratio that specifies a disease frequency, unit population size, time period, and per-unit qualifier.

Prevalence

The total number or proportion of individuals in a population who have a specific disease or condition at a given point or period in time.

Prevalence Rate

The number or proportion of people living with a disease during a specified time or time period.

Point Prevalence

The proportion of individuals ill with a disease at a single specific moment in time: $\text{Point Prevalence} = \frac{\text{Number of people ill at a specific point in time}}{\text{Total number in the group}}$

Period Prevalence

The proportion of individuals affected by a disease over a specified period of time: $\text{Period Prevalence} = \frac{\text{Number of people ill over a period of time}}{\text{Total number in the group}}$

Incidence Rate

The rate of development of new cases of a disease in a population at risk over a specified time period.

Cumulative Incidence

The proportion of a population at risk that develops new cases of a disease during a specified timeframe: $\text{Cumulative Incidence} = \frac{\text{Number of new cases during time period}}{\text{Total population at risk at start of time period}} \times \text{Multiplier}$

Endemic

The constant or expected baseline level of a disease within a given geographic area or population group.

Epidemic

An unexpected increase in the incidence rate of a disease in a population significantly above endemic levels.