Genetics and Public Health

This chapter wraps up by discussing the crucial role played by public health specialists who must reconcile traditional public health concerns of health inequality and equity with safe and effective health interventions and diagnostics that meet individual health needs. Since most genetic diseases in the realm of public health are an interplay of different genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors, genomic science has given greater emphasis to the importance of molecular and cellular mechanisms in health and disease. New biological knowledge must be integrated with the social and environmental models to improve health at individual and population levels. Public health specialists must now be able to integrate genome-based knowledge into public health in a responsible, ethical, and effective way and anticipate the increase in the health service requirements likely to occur in the future. The foundational pillars of bioethics (beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice) must be protected by all public health stakeholders.

Linking Primary Healthcare Policies With Health System for Improved Health Outcomes in Nigeria

Quality healthcare is a fundamental right of all citizens of any nation. In Nigeria, there are disparities in terms of quality of healthcare provided to different groups in the rural and urban areas. It is this desire to ensure access to potential patients and the existence of a quality healthcare system in Nigeria that necessitates primary healthcare policy. The purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to investigate how primary healthcare policies affect health system performance and health outcomes in Nigeria. The chapter adopted qualitative research approach. Secondary data were collected from secondary sources, such as textbooks, journal articles, newspapers, WHO reports, government records, and internet. Content and secondary data analysis methods were adopted to analyze, interpret, and answer the research questions. Findings show that health outcomes remain poor because of weak health system as infant and maternal mortality are still high and universal access coverage still low. The chapter concludes that a strong health system would improve health outcomes.

Integrating Ecosystem Management and Environmental Media for Public Policy on Public Health and Safety

Over the past three decades, the relationship between ecology and public policy has changed because of the increasing role of scientific uncertainty in environmental policy making. While earlier policy questions might have been solved simply by looking at the scientific technicalities of the issues, the increased role of scientific uncertainty in environmental policy making requires that we re-examine the methods used in decision-making. Previously, policymakers use scientific data to support their decision-making disciplinary boundaries are less useful because uncertain environmental policy problems span the natural sciences, engineering, economics, politics, and ethics. The chapter serves as a bridge integrating environmental ecosystem, media, and justice into policy for public health and safety. The chapter attempts to demonstrate the linkage between the environmental policy from a holistic perspective with the interaction of air, water, land, and human on public health and safety.

How Do Adolescents Obtain Health Information

Adolescent health literacy is a promising innovation in health education. This article reports the findings of research in the experience of adolescents in the methods they used in obtaining health information. A phenomenographic research approach was used to understand how adolescents conceptualized health information obtaining. The study examined data provided by 24 adolescents aged 13 to 16 living in Latvia. The data was collected through qualitative interviews. Phenomenographic data analysis uncovered five categories of description by adolescents in the way they perceived health information obtaining: 1. An opportunity to find out “things” regarding health; 2. The use of different sources of information to obtain health information; 3. The use of multimodal texts to obtain health information; 4. A passive method of obtaining information; and 5. An active method of obtaining information. It is important to integrate the experience of adolescents into health education research to develop a deeper understanding of the pedagogical phenomenon and to enhance health education programmes.

Case Study on Patient Groups on Facebook in Turkey

Increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and ageing population necessitate access to accurate health information for better health. The internet and social media affect and transform the communication of health-related information. Online platforms are enabling patients and patient groups to find common ground to discuss their health and diseases. Focusing on disease/patient group sites, this chapter investigates these sites through analyzing their features, inclusion of social and economic determinants of health in their contents, and level of critical health literacy calling for decision and action. Furthermore, these sites and their organization structures are analyzed by netnography. The findings show that disease/patient sites on Facebook are highly benefitted as an information and experience sharing platform. However, the critical health literacy level of the contents is quite low. Therefore, the role of social media as an improvement area for critical health literacy in health communication is getting more important.

Politics Matters

Hong Kong's public health services gradually developed since the 1950s. They are mainly funded by taxes, supplemented by minimal user fees. In the late 1980s, the government recognized the limitations of this financing model and has subsequently proposed alternative methods of funding. Their proposals have been rejected by various stakeholders, who represent different, and even conflicting, values and interests; and eventually can only end up with a limited voluntary health insurance scheme. This chapter describes the development of health services and the debates that have surrounded health financing since the late 1980s. It shows that the health finance debate in Hong Kong is not a simple issue that can be tackled by rational planning; instead, it is a complex consequence of welfare politics in an increasingly mobilized society.

Risk Management and Risk Communication in the Case of Vector-Borne Disease

Change in environmental and socio-economic, emerging zoonotic diseases will be an increasing challenge for public health in Europe and in Macedonia also. The risks and consequences triggered by vector-borne diseases (VBD) for public health in Macedonia are just starting to emerge in public awareness. This is clearly shown by recent events such as spread of hemorrhagic fevers in Europe. The term “public health” in the scope of this chapter suggests re-conceptualization of public health by adapting the risk governance framework developed by the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC) for this purpose. The IRGC approach is distinguished from more classical risk governance approaches, inter alia, by an explicit inclusion of a systematic concern assessment. However, unfortunately, not all countries are adapted on this innovative public health model. This chapter shows results of a risk management study based on interview in depth with the officials regard public health risk, in frame of one health concept in the Republic of Macedonia.

Digital Media in Rare Diseases or “Knowledge Is Power”

This chapter focuses on the use of digital media by EURORDIS-Rare Diseases Europe and is specifically committed to understand its contribution to the awareness and diagnosis of rare diseases. To perceive the use of digital media and role in creating awareness of rare diseases, the contents of its website and Facebook page were analyzed. In specific, a promotional video of EURORDIS and a collection of 12 videographically documented stories from 2018 and 2019. The results show the use of various types of content and inherently practices, such as information, clarification, personalization, support, appeal, and empowerment, and of several rhetorical resources. In the dimension of pathos, the author finds elements that motivate awareness and inspire the receiver. Some elements of the logos used are credibility of sender(ethos), testimony (ethos), description of disease and identification of symptoms, exemplification and personalization, factual data, statistic data, and the use of metaphors and repetition.

Health Literacy in Non-Communicable Diseases

The chapter highlights some of the methods used to embed health literacy principles into patient outreach and education materials about non-communicable diseases: chronic conditions including mental health conditions. A person's or population's understanding and engagement with health represents its health literacy. Health literacy is a form social capital. The authors use an ecological, socially contextualized model of health literacy and demonstrate how it guides the structure and content of health education material in case examples from New York City, United States, and Greece in Europe. While the specific methods used in these cases vary, the essential principal is that it is critical to identify and build on information about an individual's health literacy contextualized in the individual's or group's socio-cultural and lived experiences. Only this way can an individual's or group's health literacy be advanced so that they can engage in behavior changes for both short- and long-term health outcomes.

Designing Sustainable Social Media Health Communication Campaigns for Promoting Rare Diseases

The third goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda aims to ensure individual's wellbeing and a long and healthy life. As such, health is perceived as an essential part of sustainable development. While progress has been made over the past decades, far too little attention has been paid to misdiagnosed and rare diseases. In the context of promoting “health for all”, communication is of uttermost importance. By means of a content analysis for selected rare disease campaigns, the present contribution seeks to highlight the way the UN's health goal is communicated as part of health campaigns for rare diseases. Amongst others, this chapter sets out to understand how the goal is communicated, which aspects are stressed, and whether there are differences in message strategies across different platforms relative to rare diseases. Ultimately, the potential of social media for communicating rare diseases is carved out. Research limitations and directions for future research are also addressed.