Health Essays

Health Essays:

"Critically evaluate in detail the strengths and weaknesses of the sys...

This essay critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the systems or arrangements in place in the UK for communicable disease control, the control of environmental hazards and emergency planning and preparedness for health problems. The essay also looks at examples of good practice and how these benefit the UK, providing a rationale for the selection of these examples. The essay then moves on to identify the top five health threats to the UK (including one from communicable disease control, the control of environmental hazards and one from preparedness) and prioritizes, with justification, the actions that can be taken to improve the system in place to manage these threats.

A Critical Review of ‘Perceived control, locus of control and prepar...

Research into perceived physical pain has become widespread in an effort to help people cope with medical procedures. As a result, a number of psychological factors have been found to influence perceptions of pain, including perceived control, locus of control, and preparatory information (Weisenberg, 1998; Harkapaa et al., 1991). William et al. (2004) have attempted to provide clearer insight into whether such psychological factors influence perceptions of an acute pain stimulus. The research paper that presents their findings will be critiqued, with reference to factors recommended by Van de Voorde and Léonard (2007) when assessing the quality of research. This includes an evaluation of methodological quality, systematic error, validity, and applicability. Before providing this critique, the research will be briefly outlined.

Is the recent interest in workplace bullying a sign that UK workplaces...

The workplace bullying has become a major concern to the employers and businesses in the recent past. Bullying also exists in other countries and is referred to as “harassment” in the US and “mobbing” in Germany, Norway and Sweden, while in Finland it is called “interpersonal conflict”. Whatever the name, the essence of bullying remains the same and the negative effects of bullying are the same across the world and include demotivation, stress and decline in performance. Therefore, bullying in itself is an almost universal phenomenon that is witnessed across the world. However, in the last few years it has been reported that the growth of number of people being bullied in the UK was unstoppably increasing from slightly over 10% in 1997 to 25% in 2009.

There has always been obesity in childhood and it has been recognised ...

The National Audit Office (2001) states that a person is considered to be obese if he or she is so heavy that weight endangers health. A diagnosis of obesity is usually based on body mass index (BMI). BMI is calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. As a general rule, in adults an ideal BMI is 20 to 25. Between 25 and 30 is overweight and over 30 is obese. A BMI in excess of 40 is called morbidly obese, meaning that weight is a real and imminent threat to health. However, these figures apply only to adults and are not applicable to anyone under 18 years old. BMI per se is inappropriate to assess children. BMI must be moderated by use of the UK90 charts as described by Cole, Freeman and Preece (1995). Centile charts may also be of value. Fat children tend to be tall but centile charts may show that a child is on the 75th centile for height and the 97th centile for weight. This much higher centile for weight than for height suggests obesity. Wright et al (2002) state “the UK90 BMI reference is the only suitable reference for assessing weight relative to height”. This chart is often used in paediatric practice, including general practice but it is not freely available on the Internet for copyright reasons.

'Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) are occupational exposure limits (OE...

Workplace Exposure Limits (WELs) were designed and set by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2005, solely for the purpose of protecting the health of workers in workplaces where, exposure to certain substances would lead to ill health, particularly, if the exposure is not controlled in an efficient manner. The list of WELs generated by the HSE have been applied in the construction of control measures, required to maintain a safe and healthy working environment (HSE, 2005).
Workplace Exposure Limits replace the Maximum Exposure Limits (MELs) and Occupational Exposure Standards (OES), to generate a current list of exposure limits, in which substances which are banned, used at scarce levels and those that show adverse effects are eliminated (Active Safety Associates, 2005).

Smoking may be considered a public health issue. In what ways is it le...

Tobacco use is extremely damaging to human health. Smoking dramatically increases the risk of a range of serious diseases, including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease and stroke (Fagerstrom, 2002). In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2005) has estimated that smoking and exposure to second hand smoke (SHS) kills approximately 500,000 US citizens per year. In the United Kingdom, over 80,000 people are thought to die as a result of smoking per year, representing 29% of all cancer deaths, 13% of cardiovascular deaths and 30% of deaths from respiratory disease (Action on Smoking and Health, 2008). In addition, smoking presents an enormous economic burden to providers of health care; the National Health Service (NHS) estimates that it spent approximately £2.7 billion on smoking-related problems in 2006-7 (Action on Smoking and Health, 2008). By the end of this century, it is probable that as many as one billion people will have died from tobacco use worldwide (Novotny and Carlin, 2005).

Audit of BMI in mothers who have developed gestational diabetes in pre...

An audit is understood as “systematically looking at the procedures used for diagnosis, care and treatment, examining how associated resources are used and investigating the effect care has on the outcome and quality of life for the patient” (Department of Health, 1993), and is understood as a useful tool for reflecting on and reviewing practice to provide improvements in practice for those concerned. This work will describe a research protocol aimed at providing an audit of BMI in mothers who have developed gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

Critically analyse the rationale underpinning pre-conceptual care. Cri...

There is a general consensus that parents who are fit and healthy at the start of a pregnancy are those that are the most likely to have a healthy baby. If one accepts the most recent statistics which suggest that, at present, about half of the pregnancies achieved in the UK are unplanned and, in other cases, some women may choose to delay seeking advice from healthcare professionals once they are pregnant. It follows that pre-conception advice is probably at its most effective (on a Public Health level) if it is given opportunistically to adults of reproductive age.

(1) Are national service frameworks and quality standards necessary fo...

Presented below is a discussion as well as an evaluation of the national service frameworks and quality standards currently in use for the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. National frameworks and quality standards have been introduced into the NHS over recent years for a variety of reasons including practical healthcare issues and arguably less pragmatic political motivations. Since its creation in 1947 the NHS has been committed to producing quality standards in the provision of all its healthcare services and supposedly to the same high quality of service provision right across the country. Almost from its inception the NHS has been subject to high levels of political scrutiny as well as media coverage with regard to the quality standards of the actual healthcare services it is providing to its patient. British governments as will be discussed have found it difficult to keep pace with the public demand for extra treatments and also increased the level of quality standards to improve over all service provision. British governments and the senior management of the NHS have had to attempt to increase quality standards to improve the level of service provision despite ever increasing health budgets being unable to keep up with demand for treatment or indeed maintain the existing quality standards. In many respects the NHS it will be argued is a victim of its previous successes.

Microwave polymerisation in dentistry prosthetics

Polymer materials are frequently used in dentistry to make prosthetics and fall into two broad categories; 1) To produce prosthetics for crowns, veneers, dentures and bridges and 2) To repair caries and damage sustained by teeth instead of using amalgam products (Geerts, G.A.V.M. & Jooste, C.H., 1990; Araújo de Negreiros et al, 2010). Dental prosthetics are produced extra-orally whilst the second category are generally produced intra-orally, by the dentist while the patient is present. Dentures procured through most dentists are made using a resin matrix composed of polymers, co polymers and monomers as well as various bond enhancing agents and accelerators and initiators of the chemical reaction (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2010). Traditionally this resin matrix was moulded into plaster, invested into a metal flask and curded (hardened) by the application of heat by immersion in a water bath which takes around eight hours (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2010; Geerts, G.A.V.M. & Jooste, C.H., 1990; Araújo de Negreiros et al, 2010). Upon hardening the denture mould may shrink and acquire spaces within which serve to weaken the mould as well as causing problems with dimensional stability (movement of teeth and the shape of the base-plate). Some of these problems occur because the denture is heated from the outside and as the plaster and the matrix are poor conductors of heat this is why it takes some eight hours (Geerts, G.A.V.M. & Jooste, C.H., 1990; Araújo de Negreiros et al, 2010)