https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abM25PRzLfE
After watching theTyphoid Maryvideo, and reading the lectures note and ppt, please type your answers to the questions on the attached assignment sheet. Please answering complete sentences for full credit
HLT 99 Lecture Notes Chapter 1 General note: As you look at the power point slides for each week, you will notice that there are questions posed on the slides. When you read the notes, you will be able to find the answers in red print. Slide 1—Title slide. Students should have already taken HLT 91. HLT 91 is a personal health class. In it, you learned about many different ways to take care of your own health, for example, through making better choices about your diet, about managing stress, about limiting alcohol and drug use, practicing safe sex, etc. HLT 99 is not a personal health class; it’s a community health class. We will talk about many of the same topics but not from the same perspective. In this class we are more focused on what we can do as a society to improve the health of everyone in the community. And that requires different strategies that go beyond changing individual behaviors. Slide 2—In today’s class, we are covering a lot of basic information that we will be revisiting as we go through the semester. On the first slide you can see some primary definitions: Community: a collective body of individuals identified by common characteristics such as geography, interests, experiences, race, ethnicity, age, or other common bonds. Notice that each of these “communities” may have specific health issues linked to the common characteristic. For example, people living in the Bronx (geographical community) may have different health concerns than those living in a small town in upstate NY. Or if we define community by age, teens will have significantly different health concerns than those over 65. We also know that there are significant health issues that are tied to communities based on race and ethnicity. We will be looking at many of these different types of “community groups” and their health problems as we progress through the semester. Community health: the health status of a defined group of people and the actions and conditions that promote, protect, and preserve their health. This relates to the points made above; in the US we keep records that can help to show the health status of different community groups (by race, ethnicity, age, geography) and that allows us to compare disease rates and outcomes between different groups in our society. Based on this data, we can also design programs and interventions to try to improve health for the most affected groups. Public health: actions that society takes collectively to ensure that the conditions which promote health are met. We often use the terms “community health” and “public health” interchangeably because they are similar in that they both are focusing on the health of larger populations rather than individuals. However, public health interventions are broader and are more likely to involve legislation, policy development, and government strategies to improve health and prevent disease. Global health: describes health problems, issues, and concerns that transcend national boundaries; best addressed by cooperative actions and solutions. If you think about a timely example of Covid-19-- because it is a health problem that affects the entire globe-- there is a need for cooperation on a large scale. Viruses do not respect state or national boundaries. We’ve learned quickly that a person carrying a virus can step on a plane in one country and, within hours, be thousands of miles away, transporting the infection across international lines in the process. Climate change is another example of a global health problem that can only be addressed in a meaningful way by international cooperation. Slide 3—What’s the difference between personal health activities and community health activities? You can see what we mean by those terms on this slide, but look ahead to slide 4 for examples. Slide 4—Let’s start by looking at the pictures in the upper left and right corners: someone drinking a beer, and someone smoking a cigarette. I think it’s obvious that the pictures represent personal health activities. We all have to make individual choices whether or not to use drugs (alcohol and tobacco are drugs). Are there other examples of personal health activities on the slide? I think we would agree that the lower left and right corners are also in that category. We see someone choosing to eat a high calorie, non-nutritive snack (doughnuts) and we see someone with a lot of belly fat sitting on a bench rather than exercising or being active. Again, our food choices and our exercise habits are individual choices and that puts them in the “personal health activity” category. Let’s look at the other pictures—starting with those in the middle row. Obviously with the vaccine, the baby is not making an individual choice, but the parents are. However, we still would call this a community health activity because there are guidelines and even public health laws for most of our vaccines. If you live in NY, and are a parent, you most likely know that children going to public, private, religious schools, pre-K and day care must receive all required vaccinations unless they have a valid medical exemption. This is not just to protect your child, but to protect all children. When we vaccinate large numbers of children (or adults) we can achieve “herd immunity”—disease resistance throughout the population since so may people will no longer be at risk; the virus dies out when it lacks enough vulnerable hosts to infect. In the middle picture (“condom sense”), you see a community demonstration to raise awareness of HIV and to provide information about how to prevent the spread of the virus. Again, this is not being held for the benefit of a single individual, but for the entire population, so that makes it a community health activity. And the last picture in the row is of a sign you might see posted along a highway. The posting of the sign is a community health activity because it is a reminder to all drivers to make sure they wear seatbelts. Traffic accidents are a major cause of injury and death in the US population—so we have designed strategies such as these reminders to try to reduce the amount of harm caused by accidents. We also have laws about seatbelt use; drivers may be fined for not following the law and “buckling up.” (Note that the posting of the sign is a community health activity, but you actually making the choice to put on your seatbelt in the car is a personal health activity.) Before leaving this slide—let’s go back to the first 2 pictures that we said represented personal health activities: alcohol consumption and smoking. Because smoking and drinking cause so many problems, not just for individuals, but for society, we have also passed many laws through the years about the use of these substances in order to protect the health of the entire population. For example, we would consider the following to be community health activities related to smoking and drinking: --With alcohol, we have age requirements for the purchase of alcohol, warning labels on alcoholic beverage containers for pregnant women, laws about drinking and driving, etc. --With cigarettes, we have age requirements for purchase, health warnings on the labels, bans on smoking in most public places, severe restrictions concerning the advertising of tobacco products, etc. Slide 5—The health of any community is affected by these 4 factors: physical factors, social and cultural factors, individual behaviors, and community organization. It is extremely important that you understand what these terms mean because we will be referring to them all throughout the semester. (You also may have seen on the syllabus that you will be doing an assignment on “Factors” that relates directly to the next few slides.) Look at the next slide for more explanation. Slide 6—Let’s look at 3 types of factors in more depth. Keep in mind that these factors may have either a positive or a negative effect on health. (Note: We will focus on Community Organization in 2 other chapters in the coming weeks, which is why I’m not going to spend time on it now.) Examples of Physical Factors that can affect the health of the community: --the level and type of industrial development in the community --the types of local businesses (including restaurants, liquor stores) --community size (whether people are living in crowded or sparse populations) --the quality of the natural environment (accessible green spaces, parks, trees) --the quality of the “built environment” (design of man-made surroundings including mass transit, sidewalks, recreation facilities, bike paths, safe and sanitary housing) --access to clean air and water --geography (altitude, latitude, climate) Examples of Social and Cultural Factors that can affect the health of the community: --cultural beliefs, traditions, prejudices (cultural traditions can determine the types of foods and restaurants in the community; high level of prejudice may lead to more acts of violence against some members of the community; belief in conspiracy theories or lack of trust in medicines or doctors may lead to lack of interaction with healthcare system) --social norms refers to whether some behaviors are socially acceptable by a peer group (your text points out that smoking among adults was acceptable in earlier decades, but generally is no longer acceptable; breast-feeding infants may be the social norm in some communities, but not in others) -- politics plays a role in affecting the health of the community depending on the level of government involvement in health issues; a mayor or governor who is interested in public health can have significant influence on the health of the community (NYC’s ex-Mayor Bloomberg helped to ensure the passage of the most restrictive anti-smoking laws in the US) --religious organizations and their leaders also often take positions on health issues: abortion, reproductive rights, vaccines, alcohol use are all examples; people who belong to these faith traditions may be influenced to adopt behaviors that are in accordance with these beliefs --economics is a huge factor because it determines how much money is spent in our communities on programs that affect the health of the population: food stamps, community health clinics, access to programs that provide health insurance for those with low incomes, etc --socio-economic status (SES) refers to an individual’s level of income, education, employment; research shows that high SES leads to better overall health; those with a high level of education usually have good jobs that include health benefits, as well as higher incomes so that they can afford access to healthy foods, gym memberships, etc. Examples of Individual Behaviors that can affect the health of the community: (when enough individuals make good choices, it improves community health) --getting vaccines --wearing seat belts and following traffic laws --avoiding drugs and alcohol --managing stress to improve emotional health --following guidelines for prevention of infectious diseases (HIV, hepatitis, covid-19, influenza, etc) --recycling/not littering --healthy nutrition and exercise habits (setting good examples/role-modeling for others in