Question

Now that you have spent the last 7 weeks looking at community health from a fairly wide lens, think about your own community. Considering what you learned about the multidimensional nature of health and the major determinants of health, and in a in a post of a minimum 125 words, identify the greatest threat to the health of your community(St.Petersburg, Fl). Include in your answer how the issues impact you personally or may play a role in your future career. In other words, what is the biggest takeaway from this course?

Answer 1

Health is Multidimensional, which is determined by political, socioeconomic, cultural environmental, philosophical, vocational and nutritional factors. This means that health is a wide aspect covering almost every aspect of individual. Health is a triune of three parts: Physical, Mental and Emotional/Social health.

The main determinants of health include:

• Income and social status.
• Employment and working conditions
• Education and literacy.
• Childhood experiences.
• Physical environments.
• Social supports and coping skills.
• Healthy behaviours.
• Access to health services.

Policies at the local, State, and Federal level in St.Petersburg, Florida affect individual and population health. Increasing taxes on tobacco sales, for example, can improve population health by reducing the number of people using tobacco products.Some policies affect entire populations over extended periods of time while simultaneously helping to change individual behavior.

Social
Social determinants of health reflect social factors and the physical conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work and age. Also known as social and physical determinants of health, they impact a wide range of health, functioning and quality of life outcomes.Availability of resources to meet daily needs, such as educational and job opportunities, living wages, or healthful foods. Exposure to crime, violence, and social disorder, such as the presence of trash.Social support and social interactions.Exposure to mass media and emerging technologies, such as the Internet or cell phones. Socioeconomic conditions, such as concentrated poverty, Quality schools,Transportation options,Public safety, Residential segregation

Physical determinants include:

Natural environment, such as plants, weather, or climate change. Built environment, such as buildings or transportation,Worksites, schools, and recreational settings, housing, homes, and neighborhoods,Exposure to toxic substances and other physical hazards,Physical barriers, especially for people with disabilities,Aesthetic elements, such as good lighting, trees, or benches. Poor health outcomes are often made worse by the interaction between individuals and their social and physical environment.

In our country, St.Petersburg Florida where ozone pollution is high, there is often a higher prevalence of asthma in both adults and children compared with State and national averages. Poor air quality can worsen asthma symptoms, especially in children.
Health Services
Both access to health services and the quality of health services can impact health. Healthy People 2020 directly addresses access to health services as a topic area and incorporates quality of health services throughout a number of topic areas.Lack of access, or limited access, to health services greatly impacts an individual’s health status. For example, when individuals do not have health insurance, they are less likely to participate in preventive care and are more likely to delay medical treatment.

Barriers to accessing health services include

• Lack of availability
• High cost
• Lack of insurance coverage
• Limited language access

These barriers to accessing health services lead to:

• Unmet health needs
• Delays in receiving appropriate care
• Inability to get preventive services
• Hospitalizations that could have been prevented
• Individual Behavior

Individual behavior also plays a role in health outcomes. For example, if an individual quits smoking, his or her risk of developing heart disease is greatly reduced.

Many public health and health care interventions focus on changing individual behaviors such as substance abuse, diet, and physical activity. Positive changes in individual behavior can reduce the rates of chronic disease in this country.

• Diet
• Physical activity
• Alcohol, cigarette, and other drug use
• Handwashing
• Biologyand Genetics

Some biological and genetic factors affect specific populations more than others. For example, older adults are biologically prone to being in poorer health than adolescents due to the physical and cognitive effects of aging. In theory, genes, biology, and health behaviors together account for about 25% of population health. Social determinants of health represent the remaining three categories of social environment, physical environment/total ecology, and health services/medical care. These social determinants of health also interact with and influence individual behaviors as well. More specifically, social determinants of health refer to the set of factors that contribute to the social patterning of health, disease, and illness.

Risk fac­tors are things in your life that increase your chances of getting a certain disease. Some risk factors are beyond your control. You may be born with them or exposed to them through no fault of your own. Some risk factors that you have little or no control over include your:

1. Family history of a disease
2. Sex/gender—male or female
3. Ancestry
4. Health and Human behaviour