EFPBH's HHD 3/4 Question Thread

[Smiley_]

"Explain what is meant by the determinants of health."

thanks

This type of  question just requires a definition answer

eg determinants of health are

Factors that raise or lower a level of health in a population or individual. Determinants of health help to explain or predict trends in health and why some groups have better or worse health than others.’ (AIHW, 2006). Determinants can be classified in many ways such as biological, behavioural, physical environment and social.

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"What is the relationship between blood pressure and cardiovascular disease?"

Hypertension (or high blood pressure) increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.Therefore having a healthy blood pressure decreases the risk.

Hypertension is a contributing factor to many conditions, including cardiovascular disease such as heart attack and stroke. High Blood pressure means that the heart is working harder and therefore maybe strained, or the the blood is not able to travel as smoothly through the blood vessels as it should. Therefore the risk of CVD is increased in those individuals who suffer from hypertension.

Here is a diagram to demonstrate

[Joseph41]

Outline the difference between mortality and morbidity as measurements of health status

Mortality refers to the number of deaths within a population over a period of time, whereas morbidity refers to the ill-health in an individual and the levels of ill-health in a population or group. That is, mortality is concerned with fatalities (thus YLLs), whilst morbidity encompasses non-fatal illness, injury and disease (thus YLDs).

[Auralee]

Thanks, but how is that limited?  A person who is not healthy in one dimension but healthy in all the others means that who's health isn limited as you its easy to identify who has optimal health.

"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. - WHO 2008"

For me, that word 'complete' is what creates limitations within that definition. If you think about it, not only is it difficult to gauge everything at the same time but how many of us can actually put up our hands and say that they ARE healthy because they have COMPLETE physical, mental and social wellbeing. The answer, not many of us. Having said that, I read in a textbook that people who experience high levels of heath (e.g. physical health) also experience high levels of social and mental health. For me, I personally believe it would be hard to achieve high levels of physical, social and mental health simultaneously.

[Smiley_]

Discuss the overall health status in Australia compared to other developed countries

I would have a read of this fantastic post my yearningforsimplicity.
Re: HHD Questions Thread 2014

If you have any further specific questions just let me know

[Joseph41]

Indirect costs under "Cost of disease"

What is Indirect costs? I'm unfortunately not understanding the textbooks explanation.

any help is much appreciated:)


(key concepts. pg 135-136)

Direct costs refer to the burdens rendered necessary directly by the disease or illness. Direct costs can be accurately quantified (usually because they are financial). For example, (for the individual) the cost of medicines, the cost of ambulance services, (for the community) the cost of the provision of healthcare services, the cost of health promotion strategies.

Indirect costs refer to burdens suffered because of the illness, but not due to direct prevention, treatment, diagnosis, screening or cure. Indirect costs represent the value of lost output, which can make them a little trickier to quantify. For example, (for the individual) loss of earnings due to the inability to work, the cost of additional services such as gardening which can no longer be completed due to the illness, (for the community) lost productivity, an increase in absenteeism in employment.

Intangible costs cannot be quantified, nor are they associated with a dollar value. They refer, rather, to personal or intrinsic burdens such as (for the individual) pain, suffering, anxiety, stress, loss of quality of life, (for the community) loss of an individual from a community setting.

[Smiley_]

What is not covered by Medicare?

-->doesn't cover cosmetic or unnecessary procedures
-->general dental check ups and treatment as well as home nursing care or treatment
-->ambulance services

is there anything I haven't included?

thanks

Also alternative medicines such as chiropractic services, acupuncture, remedial massage, naturopathy and aromatherapy, if they are not referred by a doctor

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what are the important aspects for 'Private health insurance'

thanks

Be able to define it-Private health insurance provides individuals with additional healthcare services than those provided by Medicare

what it covers eg podiatry; occupational, speech and eye therapy and physiotherapy; 

The Private Health Insurance Incentives

and benefits and disadvantages of PHI

[Smiley_]

to what degree do we need to know the values that underpin the Australian health system?

thanks

You need to be able to define each one and be apply to apply them to a program eg you may be given a case study then asked about how 1-4 of the values reflect the values that underpin the health care system

[Rod]

describe the biomedical model of health

answer:

The biomedical model of health involves treating illnesses and conditions once symptoms are present. centres around doctors, health professionals and hospitals who administer treatment.

would this be an appropriate answer?

thanks

It's asking for the definition buddy, so just memorize the definition and copy it out. Doesn't have to be word for word, but my teacher is really harsh and takes off marks if it isn't.

[Joseph41]

what is the emphasis of the biomedical heath?

thx

The biomedical model of health focuses on the treatment of illness and disease. For example, surgery and medicines.

However, such a model placed a significant burden on the Australian healthcare system as there was little emphasis on prevention.

[yearningforsimplicity]

the WHO agenda focus on six key points to promote sustainable human development.
e.g
1. promoting development
2. fostering health services
3. strengthening health system
4. harnessing research, information and evidence
5. enhancing partnership
6. improving performance

Are the 6 points the same from last year or have they changed?

thx

Yupp those are the agenda of the WHO As of this year, the focus is on WHO's six-point Agenda (rather than their core functions - which was the focus in the previous HHD study design). In the past study design, there was a topic titled "Core functions of the WHO" - while this topic is not completely detached from "the Agenda of the WHO" - they are related in the sense that fulfiling the core functions also helps to fulfil the agenda; you are now only expected to know the agenda of the WHO (there are 6 of them)

Basically, the agenda of the WHO exists because it helps them to effectively respond to global health issues around the world. In a way, you could say that this six-point Agenda is kind of like WHO's "game-plan" for tackling issues of health and human development The six agenda (as you have already mentioned) include:
1) Promoting development
2) Fostering health security
3) Strengthening health systems
4) Harnessing research, information and evidence
5) Enhancing partnerships
6) Improving performance

It is important to name the agenda correctly as they are official agenda developed by the WHO so you can't "put them into your own words"

However! One way of remembering them is with this acrostic:

I See Fat Hippos Eating Peanuts

 (I made this up, don't laugh - I have nothing against hippos )

I - Improving Partnerships
S - Strengthening Health Systems
F - Fostering Health Security
H - Harnessing Research Information and Evidence
E - Enhancing Partnerships
P - Promoting Development

You should be able to explain how the WHO uses the agenda to achieve global health and sustainable human development in terms of each of the agenda (e.g. "how does the WHO improve global health and SHD through fostering health security?")

[Rod]

Explain why is it  important to have both the biomedical and social models of health if we are to improve health status?

thx

Well they are kind of both dependent on each other. The social model of health seeks to prevent conditions from happening, but most of the time they aren't prevented (as a efficient prevention strategy takes time). Then, the biomedical model of health can come into play, and using the 'quickfix' method it cures conditions. If the social model of health prevents more and more conditions over time, then the biomedical model of health (which is expensive) will be doing less curing, this reduces costs towards biomedical model of health

Hope that helps

Rod

[Rod]

Well it's not compulsory, but it's good to know all of them so you can use them as examples in your written responses. You don't have to know them in extreme depth, but enough knowledge for you to fit them in to your answers when you're specifically talking about a specific determinant that could affect health.

Since you have so much time left, you might as well.

Rod

[Rod]

awesome, thanks Rod

You're welcome