5.2 Changes in Health Status
Double points:
What is life expectancy?
The average number of years a person is expected to live if current death rates don’t change.
Double points:
What is ‘old’ public health?
Government actions targeting sanitation, safe water, food quality, and slum clearance to reduce disease.
Steal points:
What does the biomedical approach focus on?
Physical aspects of illness – diagnosing and treating disease.
Double points:
What are the 5 action areas of the Ottawa Charter?
Build healthy public policy, create supportive environments, strengthen community action, develop personal skills, reorient health services.
Double points:
What is the main aim of the SunSmart program?
To reduce the incidence of skin cancer by promoting sun protection behaviours.
Name two infectious diseases common in 1900.
Cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, smallpox, polio.
Name one initiative from ‘old’ public health.
Clean water access, sewage systems, or mass immunisations.
Give an example of a medical advancement.
X-rays, antibiotics, vaccines, heart surgeries, MRI scans.
Steal points:
What is the social model of health?
An approach that addresses sociocultural and environmental factors influencing health.
Name two key strategies SunSmart promotes.
Slip on clothing, Slop on sunscreen, Slap on a hat, Seek shade, Slide on sunglasses.
Steal points:
Explain how death rates changed from 1907–2025.
Death rates significantly declined due to improved sanitation, vaccines, and healthcare.
How did improved housing help reduce disease?
Reduced crowding and better ventilation lowered respiratory infections and infectious disease spread.
Double points:
Describe one strength and one limitation of this approach.
Strength: Can treat disease. Limitation: Doesn’t prevent it or address causes.
Give an example of “develop personal skills.”
Teaching healthy cooking skills or conflict resolution.
Steal points:
How does SunSmart use the Ottawa Charter to guide its efforts?
Builds healthy public policy (e.g. no-hat no-play), develops personal skills (education), creates supportive environments (shaded areas).
Describe a key factor in reducing infant mortality.
Improvements in sanitation, access to healthcare, and maternal education.
Steal points:
How did quarantine laws reduce infectious diseases?
Quarantine laws controlled the spread of diseases like the plague and COVID-19.
How did the discovery of antibiotics affect health outcomes?
Greatly reduced deaths from infectious diseases like pneumonia and syphilis.
How does “reorient health services” help reduce disease?
Focuses healthcare on prevention and education, not just treatment.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the SunSmart campaign.
Strong reach and behaviour change success, especially in schools and outdoor settings.
Double points:
Compare trends in cardiovascular vs. cancer deaths from 1907–2022.
Cardiovascular death rates peaked mid-20th century and declined; cancer rates rose gradually then began to fall.
Explain how public health campaigns helped shift health behaviours.
Campaigns like “Slip, Slop, Slap” raised awareness and led to behaviour change in sun exposure.
Steal points:
Evaluate how biomedical advances affected cardiovascular health.
Diagnostic tools (e.g., stethoscope), heart bypass surgery, and drug therapies reduced cardiovascular deaths.
Compare the social and biomedical models with one example.
Social: prevention-focused, equity-based; Biomedical: treats symptoms. Both improve health when combined.
Double points:
How could the SunSmart program be improved to target youth more effectively?
Add digital campaigns, influencers, or social media content targeting teens’ values and aesthetics.