scholarly journals On Knowingly Setting Unrealistic Goals in Public Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 480-484
Author(s):  
Nir Eyal ◽  
Manne Sjöstrand
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Campaigns ◽  
Public Health Practitioners ◽  
Better Than

What is the ethics of setting unrealistic goals in public health—declared goals of population health campaigns that, when introduced, are already known to be impossible to accomplish? Over the past 2 decades, major public health campaigns have set unrealistic goals, such as “eliminating” or reaching “zero” on diseases and risk factors that are clearly ineliminable. We argue that unrealistic goals can sometimes motivate action, attract funding, and help educate the public and public health practitioners better than realistic goals. Although unrealistic goal setting faces ethical challenges, including the charge of deceit and that of undermining the field’s credibility, we argue that these challenges can be met. The advantages of unrealistic goal setting while overcoming these challenges can be accomplished in 2 stages: (1) an initial declaration of the attractive but unrealistic goal educates and motivates; (2) realistic, precise, and actionable subgoals then expose its unrealistic nature and preempt ongoing deceit.

A Graduate Curriculum in Emergency Public Health

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-216
Author(s):  
Steven J. Rottman ◽  
Kimberley I. Shoaf ◽  
Samuel J. Stratton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Health Impacts ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Graduate Curriculum ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

AbstractThe increase in adverse health impacts of disasters has raised awareness of the need for education in the field of emergency public health. In the past, most traditional models of graduate education in schools of public health have not incorporated the theory and practice of disaster public health into their curricula. This paper describes the development of a curriculum in emergency public health within a US masters program in public health, and provides a description of the courses that comprise an area of specialization in the field. The interdisciplinary nature of the faculty, close ties with public health practitioners, and practical applications of the nine courses in this program are highlighted. The curriculum is presented as one model that can be used to meet the educational needs of professionals who will assume the responsibility for planning for and responding to the public health impacts of mass-populations disasters.

scholarly journals The public uptake of information about antibiotic resistance in the Netherlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel van Rijn ◽  
Manon Haverkate ◽  
Peter Achterberg ◽  
Aura Timen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Educational Video ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Knowledge Deficit ◽  
Public Health Campaigns

In this study, we test to what extent an educational video on the intricacies of antibiotic resistance affects public attitudes towards antibiotic resistance and how such information is absorbed by the most likely targets of public health campaigns. We use a representative sample of 2037 individuals (from 2016) to test how people respond to a video educating them about antibiotic resistance. Our results show that receiving information does increase the general awareness of antibiotic resistance among our respondents. Yet, these effects are most profound for those who are the most likely targets of such information: the least knowledgeable group and those who have a more apathetic worldview. Our results are in line with suggestions made by the knowledge deficit model and show that the influence of cultural predispositions on the uptake of information about antibiotic resistance should not be ignored in future campaigns.

Legal Preparedness for Obesity Prevention and Control: The Structural Framework and the Role of Government

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (S1) ◽  
pp. 24-27
Author(s):  
Demetrios L. Kouzoukas
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
Structural Framework ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Relationship

This paper discusses the relationship between obesity, law, and public health preparedness as well as the relevant roles of public health practitioners, policymakers, and lawyers. Each group believes they have a unique role in this relationship although there can be overlap and/or lack of clarity as to what that role may be.The role of the lawyer in the public policy process is to identify relevant legal issues, to analyze them and give advice on the risks of taking a given action, and to communicate legal advice in a clear manner. Simply put, the lawyer’s role is to dive deep into the law surrounding the topic at hand and to offer advice regarding the permissible limits of policymakers’ options and the associated risks.

scholarly journals Breastfeeding knowledge and attitudes of young people

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Dimovski ◽  
J Gajic ◽  
B Vukajlovic ◽  
M Jevtic ◽  
A Komlenic
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Maternal Milk ◽  
The Public ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Public Health Campaigns ◽  
A Prospective Study

Abstract Background One of the World Health Organizations (WHO) global nutrition goals by 2025 is to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding of infants under six months to at least 50%, which can be achieved only through educating future parents on the importance of breastfeeding. The goal of this research was to establish the current effects of the public health campaigns in raising awareness on breastfeeding by analyzing the opinions of young people towards maternal milk. Methods The study was conducted as a prospective study for six months in 2018. and in 2019. 281 people participated (158 female, 123 male) of whom 127 psychology students.The participants had no children, and were aged between 18 and 26.. The survey consisted of socio-demographic questions and the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) with 17 questions. Data processing included methods of descriptive and inferential statistics using the MedCalc program. Values of p < 0,05 were considered statistically significant. Results More than one out of two female and almost two out of five male participants recognized milk as a diet optimal for their infant (53% female, 38% male). Over twice as many participants considered maternal milk to be extremely positive in comparison to baby formulas as positive. Only 12% of respondents acknowledged that infants had beneficial effects from breastfeeding throughout their lives. Since only 12.8% of infants in Serbia are exclusively breastfed (according to the available data), the public health authorities need to take more drastic measures in order to complete the WHO set goal by 2025. Key messages Current public health campaigns aren’t showing sufficient effects. Both sexes need to be included in education process about the importance of breastfeeding.

scholarly journals Exploring the Development of Three Law-Based Competency Models for Public Health Practitioners

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Montrece McNeill Ransom ◽  
Brianne Yassine
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Competency Model ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Public Health Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Professionals ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Competency Models ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

As public health promotion and protection become increasingly complex and integrated into various fields, public health law is emerging as an important tool for public health professionals. To ensure that public health professionals are adequately trained public health law, public health law-related competencies should to be integrated into educational and other programming. This article provides three competency models developed by the Public Health Law Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: (a) the public health emergency law competency model, (b) the public health law competency model, and (c) the legal epidemiology competency model. These competency models provide a foundation upon which public health law curricula can be developed for governmental, nongovernmental, and academic public health practitioners. Such standardization of public health law curricula will ameliorate not only the training, but also selection and evaluation of public health practitioners, as well as better align public health training with national public health efforts.

scholarly journals Prevention of the spread of infection – the need for a family-centred approach to hygiene promotion

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
Author(s):  
S Bloomfield ◽  
M Exner ◽  
G M Fara ◽  
E A Scott
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Patient Empowerment ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Personal Hygiene ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Significant Burden ◽  
Pandemic Flu ◽  
Public Health Campaigns ◽  
Spread Of Infection

Infectious diseases circulating in the home and community are a continuing and significant burden on the health and prosperity of the European community. They could, however, be significantly reduced by better standards of hygiene. Across Europe, public health is currently structured such that the separate aspects of hygiene in different settings (food hygiene, personal hygiene, handwashing, pandemic flu preparedness, patient empowerment etc.) are dealt with by separate agencies. If efforts to promote hygiene at community level are to be successful in changing behaviour, we need a concerted family-centred approach to ensure that a basic understanding of infectious disease agents and their mechanisms of spread, together with an understanding of a risk-based approach to hygiene, are promoted as part of the school curriculum and as part of public health campaigns. Alongside this, we also need unambiguous communication with the public on issues such as the hygiene hypothesis and environmental issues.

Communicating risk

2020 ◽  
pp. 550-559
Author(s):  
John Ford ◽  
Nick Steel ◽  
Charles Guest
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Environmental Hazards ◽  
The Public ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners ◽  
Communicating Risk

By reading this chapter, you will be able to use an understanding of risk perception to communicate about risk more effectively. The health of the public is at risk from a wide range of factors, including harmful food or medicines, poorly controlled infectious diseases, pollutants or natural environmental hazards, and poor diet. Public health practitioners are often involved in minimizing the harm from these risks, and this requires communicating directly to the public or influencing stakeholders.

Gutter oil: an overview of Chinese food safety issues and policies

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Li ◽  
Naixue Cui ◽  
Jianghong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Food Safety ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Health Campaigns ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Effective Technology ◽  
The Media ◽  
Public Health Campaigns

Food safety has become a focus of attention worldwide. In China, one of the top concerns in food safety is gutter oil, known as ‘swill-cooked oil’. This Commentary summarizes the key incidents disclosed to the public by the media, and the policies regarding gutter oil at national, regional, and provincial or city levels. Several challenges the country still faces in tackling this issue are identified, including a lack of evaluation of the implementation and effect of the policies, a lack of effective technology to detect and recycle gutter oil, and the overlooking of the hazardous effect of gutter oil on health. This commentary suggests that strengthening policy implementation and evaluation, improving measurement and recycling technologies, and launching public health campaigns would help eliminate gutter oil from dining tables.

Public Health Ethics Theory: Review and Path to Convergence

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Public Health Ethics ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Clinical Model ◽  
Health Ethics ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners ◽  
Ethical Tools ◽  
Theory Review

For over 100 years, the field of contemporary public health has existed to improve the health of communities and populations. As public health practitioners conduct their work – be it focused on preventing transmission of infectious diseases, or prevention of injury, or prevention of and cures for chronic conditions – ethical dimensions arise. Borrowing heavily from the ethical tools developed for research ethics and bioethics, the nascent field of public health ethics soon began to feel the limits of the clinical model and began creating different frameworks to guide its ethical challenges. Several public health ethics frameworks have been introduced since the late 1990s, ranging from extensions of principle-based models to human rights and social justice perspectives to those based on political philosophy. None has coalesced as the framework of choice in the discipline of public health. This paper examines several of the most-known frameworks of public health ethics for their common theoretical underpinnings and values, and suggests next steps toward the formulation of a single framework.

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