Public Health Chapter 1

What is the #1 killer?

Cardiovascular/heart disease caused by smoking, drinking, high cholesterol ect.

In Public Health what is the patient?

In medicine the patient is the individual and in PH the patient is the community

What may be the #1 cancer for young people

Colon cancer

Epidemiology

focuses on human populations, controls spread of disease and seeks cause of chronic disease

Core functions of public health

Assessment

Policy Development

Assurance

Assesment

Collects, analyzes, and publicizes health info

Policy Development

Develop strategic approach to improving communities health

Assurance

Assuring that services needed for protection of public health are available and accessible

Medicine vs. Public health

In medicine the patient is the individual, in public health the patient is the community

“Shoe-leather” Epidemiology

Investigating disease outbreak by going into the feild

Statistics in Pub. Hlth

Numbers used as diagnostic tools

Statistical analysis seeks cause of disease and testing evidence of new drug

n=100 in statistics (need enough power to get the data)

Biomedical Sciences

Infectious diseases are pathogens

Helps understanding control of new diseases and noninfectious diseases

Primary Prevention

prevents illness from occurring at all

eg. washing hands

Secondary prevention

minimizes severity of disease of injury once it has occurred

eg. Mammograms, screening from cancer, Aspirin

Tertiary prevention

minimizes disability by providing medical care and rehab services

eg. Ambulances, 911, chemotherapy

Public health approach

1. define health problem

2. identify RF

3. Develop and test community interventions to control/prevent

4. Implement interventions to improve health

5. Monitor interventions to assess effectiveness