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The expression junk science is used to describe scientific data, research, or analysis considered by the person using the phrase to be spurious or fraudulent. The concept is often invoked in political and legal contexts where facts and scientific results have a great amount of weight in making a determination. It usually conveys a pejorative connotation that the research has been untowardly driven by political, ideological, financial, or otherwise unscientific motives.
Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being in which disease and infirmity are absent.
Public health has been defined as "the science and art of preventing disease”, prolonging life and improving quality of life through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, communities and individuals. Analyzing the determinants of health of a population and the threats it faces is the basis for public health. The public can be as small as a handful of people or as large as a village or an entire city; in the case of a pandemic it may encompass several continents. The concept of health takes into account physical, psychological, and social well-being. As such, according to the World Health Organization, it is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity and more recently, a resource for everyday living.
Community health is a branch of public health which focuses on people and their role as determinants of their own and other people's health in contrast to environmental health, which focuses on the physical environment and its impact on people's health.
Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequities, and face worse health outcomes than those who are able to access certain resources. It is not equity to simply provide every individual with the same resources; that would be equality. In order to achieve health equity, resources must be allocated based on an individual need-based principle.
Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group". According to Akarowhe (2018), the working definition of population health is expressed thus; population health as an art, simply means that it is geared towards equal health care delivery to an anticipated group of people in a particular geographical location; as a science, it implies that it adopt scientific approach of preventive, therapeutic, and diagnostic service in proffering medical treatment to the health problem of people; as a product, it means that population health is directed toward overall health performance of people through health satisfaction within the said geographical area; and as a process it entails effective and efficient running of a health management/population health management system to cater for the health needs of the people. It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. This concept does not refer to animal or plant populations. It has been described as consisting of three components. These are "health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions". A priority considered important in achieving the aim of Population Health is to reduce health inequities or disparities among different population groups due to, among other factors, the social determinants of health, SDOH. The SDOH include all the factors that the different populations are born into, grow up and function with throughout their lifetimes which potentially have a measurable impact on the health of human populations. The Population Health concept represents a change in the focus from the individual-level, characteristic of most mainstream medicine. It also seeks to complement the classic efforts of public health agencies by addressing a broader range of factors shown to impact the health of different populations. The World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health, reported in 2008, that the SDOH factors were responsible for the bulk of diseases and injuries and these were the major causes of health inequities in all countries. In the US, SDOH were estimated to account for 70% of avoidable mortality.
Public health surveillance is, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), "the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health-related data needed for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice." Public health surveillance may be used to track emerging health-related issues at an early stage and find active solutions in a timely manner. Surveillance systems are generally called upon to provide information regarding when and where health problems are occurring and who is affected.
Primary Health Care, or PHC refers to "essential health care" that is based on scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology. This makes universal health care accessible to all individuals and families in a community. PHC initiatives allow for the full participation of community members in implementation and decision making. Services are provided at a cost that the community and the country can afford at every stage of their development in the spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. In other words, PHC is an approach to health beyond the traditional health care system that focuses on health equity-producing social policy. PHC includes all areas that play a role in health, such as access to health services, environment and lifestyle. Thus, primary healthcare and public health measures, taken together, may be considered as the cornerstones of universal health systems. The World Health Organization, or WHO, elaborates on the goals of PHC as defined by three major categories, "empowering people and communities, multisectoral policy and action; and primary care and essential public health functions as the core of integrated health services[1]." Based on these definitions, PHC can not only help an individual after being diagnosed with a disease or disorder, but actively prevent such issues by understanding the individual as a whole.
Health promotion is, as stated in the 1986 World Health Organization (WHO) Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, "the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to well-being".
The social determinants of health are the economic and social conditions that influence individual and group differences in health status. They are the health promoting factors found in one's living and working conditions, rather than individual risk factors that influence the risk for a disease, or vulnerability to disease or injury. The distributions of social determinants are often shaped by public policies that reflect prevailing political ideologies of the area. The World Health Organization says, "This unequal distribution of health-damaging experiences is not in any sense a 'natural' phenomenon but is the result of a toxic combination of poor social policies, unfair economic arrangements [where the already well-off and healthy become even richer and the poor who are already more likely to be ill become even poorer], and bad politics."
The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through
- understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and
- fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a healthier society.
In medicine, rural health or rural medicine is the interdisciplinary study of health and health care delivery in rural environments. The concept of rural health incorporates many fields, including geography, midwifery, nursing, sociology, economics, and telehealth or telemedicine.
Race and health refers to how being identified with a specific race influences health. Race is a complex concept that changes across chronological eras and that depends on both self-identification and social recognition. In the study of race and health, scientists organize people in racial categories depending on different factors such as: phenotype, ancestry, social identity, genetic makeup and lived experience. “Race” and ethnicity often remain undifferentiated in health research.
While epidemiology is "the study of the distribution and determinants of states of health in populations", social epidemiology is "that branch of epidemiology concerned with the way that social structures, institutions, and relationships influence health." This research includes "both specific features of, and pathways by which, societal conditions affect health".
The Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS) is a classification system which allows for the standardized collection of essential nursing data. The collected data are meant to provide an accurate description of the nursing process used when providing nursing care. The NMDS allow for the analysis and comparison of nursing data across populations, settings, geographic areas, and time.
America's Health Rankings started in 1990 and is the longest-running annual assessment of the nation's health on a state-by-state basis. It is founded on the World Health Organization holistic definition of health, which says health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. America's Health Rankings is a partnership of the United Health Foundation, and the American Public Health Association.
Research on race and health in the United States shows many health disparities among the different racial/ethnic groups. Different outcomes in mental and physical health exist between all census-recognized racial groups, but these differences stem from different historical and current factors, including genetics, socioeconomic factors, and racism. Research has demonstrated that numerous health care professionals show implicit bias in the way that they treat patients. Certain diseases have a higher prevalence among specific racial groups, and life expectancy also varies across groups.
The social determinants of health in poverty describe the factors that affect impoverished populations' health and health inequality. Inequalities in health stem from the conditions of people's lives, including living conditions, work environment, age, and other social factors, and how these affect people's ability to respond to illness. These conditions are also shaped by political, social, and economic structures. The majority of people around the globe do not meet their potential best health because of a "toxic combination of bad policies, economics, and politics". Daily living conditions work together with these structural drivers to result in the social determinants of health.
Population health, a field which focuses on the improvement of the health outcomes for a group of individuals, has been described as consisting of three components: "health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions". Policies and Interventions define the methods in which health outcomes and patterns of health determinants are implemented. Policies which are helpful "improve the conditions under which people live". Interventions encourage healthy behaviors for individuals or populations through "program elements or strategies designed to produce behavior changes or improve health status".
Mental health inequality refers to the differences in the quality, access, and health care different communities and populations receive for mental health services. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people are affected with depressive disorders. Mental health can be defined as an individual's well-being and/or the absence of clinically defined mental illness. Inequalities that can occur in mental healthcare may include mental health status, access to and quality of care, and mental health outcomes, which may differ across populations of different race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, sex, gender, socioeconomic statuses, education level, and geographic location. Social determinants of health that can influence an individual's susceptibility to developing mental disorders and illnesses include, but are not limited to, economic status, education level, demographics, geographic location and genetics.
References
- 1 2 3 Lalonde M. A new perspective on the health of Canadians. A working document. Ottawa: Government of Canada, 1974.
- ↑ Hancock, Trevor. "Beyond Health Care: From Public Health Policy to Health Public Policy." Canadian Journal of Public Health 76, Supplement One (May/June 1985).
- ↑ Minkler, M (Spring 1989). "Health education, health promotion and the open society: an historical perspective". Health Educ Q. 16 (1): 17–30. doi:10.1177/109019818901600105. PMID 2649456.
- 1 2 Glouberman S. Towards a New Perspective on Health Policy. Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine Canadian Policy Research Networks, 2001. Accessed 18 July 2011.
- ↑ Coburn, D.; Denny, K.; Mykhalovskiy, E.; McDonough, P.; Robertson, A.; Love, R. (2003). "Population health in Canada: A brief critique". American Journal of Public Health. 93 (3): 392–396. doi:10.2105/ajph.93.3.392. PMC 1447750 . PMID 12604479.
- ↑ Frohlich, KL; Potvin, L (Feb 2008). "Transcending the known in public health practice. The inequality paradox: the population approach and vulnerable populations". Am J Public Health. 98 (2): 216–21. doi:10.2105/ajph.2007.114777. PMC 2376882 . PMID 18172133.