Deck 1: Community and Public Health: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Question 1

Review the Healthy People 2020 website. Then, set up a time to talk with an administrator in your hometown health department. Find out which of the objectives the health department has been working on as priorities. Summarize in a paper what the objectives are, what the health department is doing about them, and what it hopes to accomplish by the year 2020.

Answer 1

HP documents are a set of four documents of health goals and objectives for the people of the US. This document defines the nation's health agenda and guides its health policies.
These health documents have made people realize the value of their health. Furthermore, it also explains the ways using which an individual can prevent several diseases, like maintaining good hygiene and sanitation in their individual as well as community behaviors.
After reviewing the HP 2020 website and talking to a health administrator of XYZ location, it was observed that the basic priorities that this department is working over are sanitation and availability of safe drinking water. This is because poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water results in several individual as well as community and public health problems.
In order to achieve this objective, the health department is working dedicatedly for creating several sources for safe drinking water at every area. Furthermore, it is spreading awareness among people regarding the importance of hygienic and sanitary habits.

Question 2

Write your own definition for health.

Answer 2

Health is very important for every individual. It helps in living a good life and managing every other aspect of one's life. Being healthy helps in leading a better quality of life.
Health refers to the absence of disease i.e. a disease-free entity and the bodily functions. Being healthy makes an individual feel positive and happy.
As per an individual's opinion, the definition for health could be something that is positive, happy and hailing. Health could be described as a happy state of body and its functions that make an individual feel good about themselves.
Health is concerned with an individual's physical, social and emotional well-being. If an individual's physical health is good, then their emotional state would also be good. Thus, it can be said that health is a mixture of happy physical and emotional state of an individual.

Question 3

Define the term community.

Answer 3

Community refers to a collective body of individuals those who are identified by common characteristics like geography, interests, experiences, concerns, or values.
The examples of community could be the Christian people those who believe in Jesus Christ and to church services; Asian community of San Francisco; business or banking communities, community of dentists; the community of Arab countries etc.
The community may be small that it could live in a particular area or it could be so large that it forms an entire nation in itself. Thus community refers to a people who follow similar characteristics and have similar type of living styles.

Question 4

The Internet has many sources of information that could help Amy and Eric with the decisions that they will have to make about the continued use of the day care center for their children. Use a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing) and enter (a) hepatitis, and (b) hepatitis and day care centers. Print out the information that you find and use it in answering the following questions.
Based on the information you found on the Internet, if you were Amy or Eric would you take your children to the day care center the next day? Why or why not?

Question 5

What are four major factors that affect the health of a community? Provide an example of each.

Question 6

How did the WHO define health in 1946? How has that definition been modified?

Question 7

Identify some of the major events of community and public health in each of the following periods of time:
Early civilizations (prior to 500 c. e.)
Middle Ages (500-1500 c. e.)
Renaissance and Exploration (1500-1700 c. e.)
The eighteenth century
The nineteenth century

Question 8

In a two-page paper, explain how the five major determinants of health could interact to cause a disease such as cancer.

Question 9

Provide a brief explanation of the origins from which the following twentieth-century periods get their names:
Health resources development period
Period of social engineering
Period of health promotion

Question 10

The Internet has many sources of information that could help Amy and Eric with the decisions that they will have to make about the continued use of the day care center for their children. Use a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing) and enter (a) hepatitis, and (b) hepatitis and day care centers. Print out the information that you find and use it in answering the following questions.
Do you believe the hepatitis problem in day care centers is a personal health concern or a community health concern? Why?

Question 11

What significance do the Healthy People documents have in community and public health development in recent years?

Question 12

What is public health?

Question 13

What significance do you think Healthy People 2020 will have in the years ahead?

Question 14

In a one-page paper, explain why heart disease can be both a personal health problem and a community and public health problem.

Question 15

What is the National Prevention Strategy and who is responsible for it?

Question 16

The Internet has many sources of information that could help Amy and Eric with the decisions that they will have to make about the continued use of the day care center for their children. Use a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing) and enter (a) hepatitis, and (b) hepatitis and day care centers. Print out the information that you find and use it in answering the following questions.
Which of the factors noted in this chapter that affect the health of a community play a part in the hepatitis problem faced by Amy and Eric?

Question 17

What are the major community and public health problems facing the United States and the World in the twenty-first century?

Question 18

What are the differences among community health, population health, and global health?

Question 19

Select a community and public health problem that exists in your hometown; then, using the factors that affect the health of a community noted in this chapter, analyze and discuss in a two-page paper at least three factors that contribute to the problem in your hometown.

Question 20

The Internet has many sources of information that could help Amy and Eric with the decisions that they will have to make about the continued use of the day care center for their children. Use a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing) and enter (a) hepatitis, and (b) hepatitis and day care centers. Print out the information that you find and use it in answering the following questions.
Why does the hepatitis problem remind us of the health problems faced by people in this country prior to 1900?

Question 21

What are the five major domains that determine a person's health?

Question 22

Select one of the following individuals (all have been identified in this chapter), go to the library and do some additional reading or find two reliable websites, and then write a two-page paper on the person's contribution to community health.
Edward Jenner
John Snow
Lemuel Shattuck
Louis Pasteur
Robert Koch
Walter Reed

Question 23

The Internet has many sources of information that could help Amy and Eric with the decisions that they will have to make about the continued use of the day care center for their children. Use a search engine (e.g., Google, Bing) and enter (a) hepatitis, and (b) hepatitis and day care centers. Print out the information that you find and use it in answering the following questions.
Under which of the focus areas in the Healthy People 2020 would hepatitis fall? Why?

Question 24

What is the difference between personal health activities and community and public health activities?