Public Health

These 150 question-and-answer flashcards review key concepts from Module 6 – Public Health, including definitions, determinants, disease causation models, natural history, prevention levels, demography, statistical measures, study designs, and test validity.

What are the three main goals of Public Health?

Preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental health and efficiency.

Which organized community effort in Public Health focuses on environmental cleanliness?

Sanitation of the environment.

Which organized community effort is aimed at controlling community infections?

Control of community infections.

Which organized community effort educates individuals in personal hygiene principles?

Education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene.

Which organized community effort provides early diagnosis and treatment services?

Organization of medical services for early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

Which organized community effort seeks to ensure an adequate standard of living?

Development of a social machinery that ensures a living standard adequate for maintenance of health.

How are voluntary health agencies primarily funded?

Wholly or largely by non-tax (private) funds.

Give two examples of voluntary (private) health agencies.

NGOs, private clinics, private foundations.

How are governmental health agencies primarily funded?

Through public, official, or tax support.

Give two examples of governmental (public) health agencies.

Government hospitals, health centers, district hospitals.

According to WHO, health is a state of complete , , and well-being.

Physical, mental, and social.

Is the WHO definition of health primarily qualitative or quantitative?

Qualitative.

Is health considered dynamic or static according to WHO?

Dynamic.

Name the six dimensions of health.

Physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual, sexual.

Define disease in one phrase.

A diagnostic category classifying a particular illness or its pathological components.

What term describes a person's subjective experience of being unwell?

Illness.

What term describes a state free from disabling effects with vigor for normal life?

Normal health.

Which health concept views the person’s psychosocial-cultural-spiritual relationships as affecting health?

Holistic health.

List three determinants of health and disease.

Genes, nutrition, lifestyle (others: population problems, iatrogenic disease).

Failure to ingest food due to poverty is an example of which essential cause of malnutrition?

Failure to ingest food.

Name the three ecologic factors of disease.

Agent, host, environment.

What is an agent in disease causation?

Any element, substance, or force whose presence or absence can perpetuate a disease.

Give two living agents of disease.

Bacteria, fungi (others: molds, yeast, arthropods, helminths, protozoa).

Give two non-living physical or mechanical agents.

Extremes in temperature and physical trauma (others: light, electrocution).

What are exogenous chemical agents?

Common poisons originating outside the body.

What are endogenous chemical agents?

Toxic products of metabolism produced within the body.

How can nutrients act as disease agents?

By deficiency or excess.

What is a disease host?

A vertebrate or invertebrate capable of being infected by an agent.

Name four host factors influencing disease.

Genetic makeup, age, sex, habits/customs (others: race, exposure, defense mechanisms, nutrition).

Define environment in disease ecology.

Sum of external conditions and influences affecting an organism’s life and development.

List the three environmental categories affecting disease.

Physical, biologic, socioeconomic.

Provide two examples of physical environmental factors.

Humidity and weather (also topography).

Provide one example of a biologic environmental factor.

Presence of living agents (e.g., vectors, animals).

Provide two socioeconomic environmental factors.

Population density and urbanization (others: lack of awareness, political commitment, fast food prevalence).

State the first biological law for communicable and non-communicable disease.

Disease results from an imbalance between a disease agent and man.

What model of disease causation shows host-agent-environment as a triangle?

Epidemiologic Triangle.

Which model illustrates multiple chains of causation?

Web of Causation.

Which model depicts the host’s genetic core surrounded by environmental influences?

Wheel of Causation.

What term describes the entire course of disease from initial interaction to outcome?

Natural history of disease.

In which phase of natural history is the host not yet involved?

Pre-pathogenesis.

In which phase of natural history do clinical signs appear?

Pathogenesis.

List the four possible outcomes of infection.

Recovery, balanced equilibrium (carrier), subclinical condition, clinical case.

Name two requirements for infection to occur.

Presence of agent and suitable reservoir (others: susceptible host, portal of entry, portal of exit, means of dissemination).

Define incubation period.

Interval between entry of agent and onset of signs and symptoms.

Name three factors that influence incubation period length.

Virulence/dose/portal of entry, host’s previous experience, natural resistance (also inherent character of organism).

What is the clinical horizon?

The point at which clinical manifestations appear after incubation.

Give an example of a continuous fever disease.

Dengue.

Which disease classically shows intermittent fever?

Malaria.

Which disease classically shows remittent fever?

Typhoid fever.

Why is the portal of entry important for infection?

A suitable portal is required for successful infection and may also serve as the portal of exit.

List four possible portals of entry.

Respiratory tract, skin/subcutaneous tissue, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary tract (others: mucous membranes, conjunctiva, placenta).

Define period of communicability.

Time span during which a patient is infectious to others.

What type of disease may have a very long period of communicability due to a carrier state?

Typhoid fever (also HBV, HIV, TB).

What is an incubatory carrier?

A person who transmits the pathogen during the incubation period before symptoms appear.

What is a convalescent carrier?

A person who continues to shed organisms after symptoms disappear.

What is a temporary carrier?

A person infectious only during the illness period.

What is a chronic carrier?

A person who continuously sheds the pathogen for a long time.

Define antigenicity of an agent.

Its ability to induce antibody production in the host.

Define toxicity of an agent.

Its ability to produce toxins that harm the host.

Define invasiveness of an agent.

Its ability to penetrate and grow within host tissues away from the original site.

Define virulence.

The ability of an agent to cause severe or serious illness.

Define pathogenicity.

The ability of an agent to cause disease in the host.

Define infectivity.

The ability of an agent to lodge and multiply in the host’s body.

What is prevention in public health?

Inhibiting disease development before it occurs and slowing its progression once it occurs.

Which level of prevention operates in the pre-pathogenesis phase?

Primary prevention.

What is primordial prevention also called?

General health promotion.

Give three examples of general health promotion activities.

Good nutrition standards, adequate housing/ventilation, sports activities (others: health education, hygiene habits, sex counseling).

What is specific protection?

Measures directed against particular disease agents by creating environmental barriers or reducing exposure.

Give two examples of specific protection measures.

Immunization and isolation/quarantine (others: food/water sanitation, occupational hazard protection, avoidance of carcinogens).

During which level of prevention do early diagnosis and prompt treatment occur?

Secondary prevention.

List two objectives of secondary prevention.

Prevent spread of infection and arrest disease process to prevent complications.

Cancer screening is an example of which prevention level?

Secondary prevention.

What is the main goal of tertiary prevention?

Return the individual to a useful place in society and maximize remaining capacities.

Give two examples of tertiary prevention activities.

Rehabilitation and disability limitation (also intensive follow-up, long-term treatment).

Define demography.

The science of population, focusing on size, composition, and spatial distribution.

Name the three human phenomena studied in demography.

Population size, composition, and spatial distribution.

What is a count in demography?

An absolute number of a population or demographic event in a specific area and time.

Provide an example of a demographic count.

30,443,287 males in the Philippines in 1990.

What is a ratio in demography?

A single number representing the relative size of two numbers, comparing subgroups.

What does a ratio become when K = 100?

A percentage.

What is a proportion?

A special ratio where the numerator is part of the denominator.

What is a rate in demography?

Frequency of occurrence of events over a given time interval, often per 1,000 population.

Differentiate crude rate and specific rate.

Crude rate covers the entire population; specific rate covers a defined subgroup.

Give an example of a crude rate.

Crude Birth Rate (CBR) or Crude Death Rate (CDR).

Give an example of a specific rate.

General Fertility Rate.

Define mean.

Sum of all observations divided by the number of observations.

Define median.

The middle value when observations are arranged in order of magnitude.

How is median calculated when n is even?

It is the mean of the two middlemost observations.

Define mode.

The value that occurs with the greatest frequency in a data set.

In a symmetrical distribution, where are mean, median, and mode located?

At the same central point.

A distribution skewed to the left has a longer tail on which side?

The left (negative) side.

List four measures of dispersion.

Range, variance, standard deviation, coefficient of variation.

Name the two broad categories of study design.

Observational and experimental.

What are the two subtypes of observational design?

Descriptive and analytic.

What are the two subtypes of experimental design?

True experiment (with randomization) and quasi-experiment (without randomization).

Name four descriptive study designs.

Case report, case series, ecologic study, cross-sectional study.

Name two analytic study designs.

Case-control study and cohort study.

Which study design can be both descriptive and analytic?

Cross-sectional study.

Define validity of a diagnostic test.

Its ability to distinguish correctly between those who have the disease and those who do not.

What are the two main components of test validity?

Sensitivity and specificity.