W06 Vocabulary

(Merriam-Webster, 2023)

Ad: an advertisement.

Anthem: a song, as of praise, devotion, or patriotism.

Anti: (usually used as a prefix) a person who is opposed to a particular practice, party, policy, action, etc.

Globally: pertaining to the whole world.

Malaria: any of a group of diseases characterized by attacks of chills, fever, and sweating.

Marketing: the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

Mortality: the state or condition of being subject to death.

Overview: a general outline of a subject or situation.

Sanitation: the development and application of sanitary measures for the sake of cleanliness, protecting health, etc.

Smoke: the visible vapor and gases given off by a burning or smoldering substance.

Smoker: a person or thing that smokes.

Smoking: to draw into the mouth and puff out the smoke of.

Tobacco: the prepared leaves, as used in cigarettes, cigars, and pipes.

Transcript: a written, typewritten, or printed copy; something transcribed or made by transcribing.

Tuberculosis: an infectious disease that may affect almost any tissue of the body, especially the lungs.

Unbelievably: in a manner that is hard to believe.

Vaccine: any preventive preparation used to stimulate the body’s immune response against a specific disease.

Vintage: of old, recognized, and enduring interest, importance, or quality.

Overview

Public health decisions are data-driven. Why do you think this is? This week, you will be working on the processes of gathering data to help determine the need for public action. You will also discuss different examples of how public health has solved some of the greatest public health issues facing the general population.  

Public health professionals must guide their efforts forward with the data they gather. This data-driven decision-making approach relies on data and analysis to improve the outcomes of the programs they are putting into place in the communities they serve. Some data can be used to assess health trends, evaluate interventions, and make predictions. Other types of data can provide insight into the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of people in communities. This insight allows for more targeted interventions.

Data can be gathered at different steps in the public health approach to solving problems. 

1. Surveillance:  the continuous, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data.
2. Risk Factor Identification: as public health professionals identify and understand risk factors that are associated with various conditions and diseases they can tailor interventions.
3. Intervention Evaluation: interventions are continuously assessed and evaluated for effectiveness. Data provides evidence of what works and what doesn't work and allows professionals to make adjustments. 
4. Implementation: using data, public health professionals can make sure that resources go to where they are needed the most which helps to maximize the impact of the intervention. 

W06 Study: Understanding Community Health

Overview

Purpose: To prepare yourself to complete the application assignment.

In Week 5 you learned about planning models that are at the core of community improvement. Studying other communities' improvement plans is an excellent way to become familiar with the community planning process. 

Here are some examples of success stories:

1. The CDC in the U.S. published stories of global activities. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023)

2. The WHO published a Results Report showing global health achievements during 2020 and 2021, despite the pandemic. (World Health Organization, 2022b)

3. The National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) of the U.S. highlights various healthy community program success stories and how they were able to use planning models to improve their communities. (National Recreation and Park Association, n.d.-a)

Notice the six major categories that can influence communities to promote change.

• Collaboration Building

• Increasing Physical Activity

• Improving Nutrition

• Economic Development

• Park Prescriptions

• Tobacco Reduction

Look for the steps of the improvement plan and how the success stories answered those steps. 

Looking back at Lesson 5, we are going to revisit the Generic Planning Model. 

Generic Planning Model

This course will use a simpler generic planning model, summarized below. Most public health programs should follow these or similar steps:

1. Understand your problem: What is wrong in the community? What needs to be fixed and why? Do you have the data to back it up yet? If not you need to move on to the next step where you...

For example, Step 01 of the planning model is Understand Your Problem. The story, "Taking an Indoor-Outdoor Approach to Improving Community Health," tells how Casper [Wyoming, USA] “like many communities in the U.S. is struggling with poor health statistics.” (National Recreation and Park Association, n.d.-b). Once they understood their problem they could focus on the next steps to come up with solutions to implement. 

1. Conduct a needs assessment: What are the specific needs in the community that need to be addressed? 

2. Set goals: Set your goals. Every project plan should have a clear, desired outcome. Without goals you will be flying blind. 

3. Develop an intervention: How are you going to reach those goals you set? Who are the stakeholders? What are the roles? What is the timeline and schedule? 

4. Implement the intervention: Put it all into action! 

5. Evaluate the results: After it is all said and done, or your program has been going for awhile, evaluate how things are going. What is going well? What isn't going well? What changes need to be made? What needs to stay the same? 

Then you start again! 

W06 Study: Successes in Public Health

Overview

Purpose: Learn about different successes in public health.

Here are some major worldwide successes in public health:

• Reductions in Child Mortality.

• Vaccine-Preventable Diseases.

• Access to Safe Water and Sanitation.

• Malaria Prevention and Control.

• Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS.

• Tuberculosis Control.

• Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases.

• Tobacco Control.

• Increased Awareness and Response for Improving Global Road Safety.

• Improved Preparedness and Response to Global Health Threats.

Tobacco Control in the United States

In the United States, smoking used to be viewed in a positive light. The use of cigarettes was advertised in print, on the radio, and television (TV) as a good habit. Many claimed smoking had positive effects on the body. In the Optional Resources section below are some examples of commercials in the 1950s and 1960s that promoted the benefits of smoking.

However, as more studies have been done about cigarettes and tobacco products, the more it has become evident that tobacco use is very dangerous and harmful. Smoking in the United States was decreased by:

• Effective marketing campaigns

• Community education

• Updated laws and public policy

• Widespread scientific research

One of the ways public health has helped reduce cigarette smoking in the United States is by using anti-smoking commercials.

Here are some quick facts about smoking in the United States:

• Cigarette smoking among US adults has been reduced by more than half since 1964.

• The percentage of people who stopped smoking increased from 50.8% in 2005 to 59.0% in 2016.

• In the year 1950, the death rate for smoking was 307.4 deaths per 100,000.

• In the year 1996, the death rate for smoking was 134.6 deaths per 100,000.

• The tobacco use rates for 18-year-olds and older dropped from 42.4% in 1965 to 24.7% in 1997.

• Other countries have made great strides in tobacco control as well.

Vaccine-Preventable Diseases

One of the great worldwide successes in public health has been the introduction of vaccines. Vaccines have saved the lives of people all over the world. While some question the effectiveness of vaccines, the evidence supports that vaccines are safe and vital. The widespread acceptance of vaccines came through similar means as the changes in smoking: effective marketing campaigns, community education, changing laws, public policy, and widespread scientific research.

This infographic shows the importance of vaccines in reducing diseases in public health:

(Loria, 2015)

Reductions in Child Death Rates

Globally, the under-five mortality rate has decreased by 59%, from an estimated rate of 93 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 39 deaths per 1000 live births in 2018. This is equivalent to 1 in 11 children dying before reaching age 5 in 1990, compared to 1 in 26 in 2018 (World Health Organization, 2022a).

W06 Job Skills: CHES Exam

Overview

The Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) exam is an internationally recognized exam that measures a person's understanding of the Eight Areas of Responsibility. This exam is taken after the completion of a public health program. A person who passes this exam becomes a certified health educator.

The mock CHES exam, while not required in this course, is a valuable source of information to help you understand the types of questions you will encounter if you choose to sit for this exam. Again, this is not required and this assignment is not worth points.

The purpose of this activity is to help you understand the possibility of gaining NCHEC certification after graduation with your bachelor's degree. Please understand that the information you are tested on in the Mock CHES Exam is far beyond what you have learned in this class. This activity is only to give you an idea of what the exam will be like should you decide to take that route. 

APA Format

Editing and Revision

Revising gives you the chance to preview your work before you submit it for final grading. Revision is proofreading but involves some checking of details in the final editing stage. Good revision and editing can transform an acceptable first draft into an excellent final paper.

Revision usually means changing things around. You might add or delete sentences or paragraphs. This is your first step. You won't want to deal with the small details before you take care of the large ideas. Make sure that the ideas that you have presented are clear and understandable. Make notes in your margins as you go and then after each section stop and make the desired changes. 

1. Make sure that you have fulfilled the requirements of your assignment. Look over the instructions and the rubric  making sure all the details required are included: 

   • Have you done the kind of thinking the assignment asked for (e.g., analyze, argue, compare, explore)
   • Is your paper the correct kind of paper (e.g. research, creative, argumentative)
     
   • Have you given adequate evidence for your arguments? Be sure that your readers can link the evidence that you present to your arguments or reasoning. Watch out for too much repetition in your writing. 
     

2. Look at how your paper is organized. Printing out your paper so you can look at the entire thing all at once is a helpful practice. Consider the questions below: 

   • Is your introduction clear? Do you have a thesis statement?  Ask someone to read through the introduction and tell you what they think the rest of the paper is about. 
   • Is each section of the paper in the right place? Do you cover all the requirements? Do you have irrelevant information? 
   • Have you drawn connections between each section in your writing? Does your thesis statement relate to everything you have written? 
   • If a reader only read your conclusion, would they know what your paper had been about?

3. At this point you will want to polish your paper. Look at word choice, spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. Here are some tips to help you out. 

   • Read passages aloud to see if everything makes sense. 
   • Be sure to use spell check. It will help you catch most typos and many misspelled words. Don't let it make the changes for you though. You make the changes that make sense. 
   • Use plain and clear language throughout. 
   • Have someone else read through your paper. They can supply notes of where they think you might need changes. 

References

Casella, A. (Ed.). (2017, April 22). 50’s and 60’s cigarette ads. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTwMzTVljGg

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, June 17). Global Health Center Success Stories – Sorted by Topic. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/stories/topic-list.html

Improving public health through data-driven decision making. eHealth4everyone. (2023, August 8). https://ehealth4everyone.com/improving-public-health-through-data-driven-decision-making/#:~:text=Implementation%3A%20When%20implementing%20public%20health,require%20more%20attention%20and%20support.

Lawrence, L. (2023, October 2). Cigarettes were once “physician” tested, approved. Healio. https://www.healio.com/news/hematology-oncology/20120325/cigarettes-were-once-physician-tested-approved

Loria, K. (2015, February 3). 7 facts about vaccines that show why they’re one of the most important inventions in human history. Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-vaccines-are-so-important-2015-2

Merriam-Webster. (2023). Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/

National Recreation and Park Association. (n.d.-a). Parks Build Healthy Communities: Success Stories. https://www.nrpa.org/contentassets/f768428a39aa4035ae55b2aaff372617/healthy-communities-success-stories.pdf

National Recreation and Park Association. (n.d.-b). Taking an Indoor-Outdoor Approach to Improving Community Health. In Parks Build Healthy Communities: Success Stories (p. 6). https://www.nrpa.org/contentassets/f768428a39aa4035ae55b2aaff372617/healthy-communities-success-stories.pdf

World Health Organization. (2022a, January 28). Child mortality (under 5 years). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/levels-and-trends-in-child-under-5-mortality-in-2020

World Health Organization. (2022b, May 16). WHO Results Report shows global health achievements despite COVID-19 pandemic. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news/item/16-05-2022-who-results-report-shows-global-health-achievements-despite-covid-19-pandemic