West Coast University Week 4 Technology and Population Health Discussion Discussion 1 : The Benefits of Using Social Media for Networking in Your Field o

West Coast University Week 4 Technology and Population Health Discussion Discussion 1 :

The Benefits of Using Social Media for Networking in Your Field of Study

How do you use social networking in your current profession? When discussing networking, individuals often focus on connecting with family and friends. However, it is just as crucial to connect with other colleagues or peers in your field.

For this Discussion, examine how you could use social media to network with other professionals in the health field.

Discussion 2 : Moving Upstream to Improve Population Health Down the Road

Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by them; in fact the family brings up baby by being brought up by him.

—Erik H. Erikson

A growing body of evidence is linking adult chronic disease to processes and experiences occurring decades before these diseases manifest themselves. In some cases, intrauterine influences may be linked to long-term health outcomes.

A major challenge in population health is determining how to influence early life to produce good health in later years. Some countries do a better job in reducing socioeconomic inequalities and other determinants of health or mitigating their impact on children’s health and development than others. The challenge for public health professionals is to promote a greater understanding of the circumstances of early life and to foster policies to benefit those whose health ultimately depends on family and society.

Medical care in middle age can mitigate the consequences but cannot redress or change the impact of those early factors. Additionally, medical care when you are already ill is expensive, sometimes providing too much care too late to make a difference. As demonstrated this week, medical care is less important for producing good health outcomes later in life.

For this Discussion, you examine how the use of concepts of the developmental origins of life and health can influence adult morbidity. Your Discussion also challenges you to propose ways to improve child health that will also provide a long-term benefit on population health.

To prepare for this Discussion, complete the readings and view the media in your Learning Resources. Look online and in the Walden University Library for additional scholarly resources regarding the developmental origins of health and disease and the impact of childhood policies and programs on lifelong health to support your discussion post and replies.

Post a brief reflection on how the commonly held sentiment “we are all born equal” may constrain how society thinks about early life. Comment on influences that this concept may overlook or mask. Then, explain two ways the use of concepts of the developmental origins of life and health can influence adult morbidity. Describe two challenges to addressing the upstream risk and protective determinants of health in current health policies and programs in the U.S. or in other countries. Also, explain why they are challenges. Finally, offer two suggestions for improving child health that can have a long-term benefit on population health for one chronic disease and explain why. Expand on your insights utilizing the Learning Resources.

Discussion 4: Can Technology + Behavior Be Diffused?

The biological understanding of health and disease has evolved from miasmas (vaporous exhalation formerly believed to cause disease) to germs to individual risk factors tied to specific diseases. Now you are challenged by the knowledge that many people get chronic illnesses without having the known critical risk factors (e.g., smoking) that some may try to avoid in an effort to be healthy. The scientific revolution in health creates an even bigger challenge.

Stress and inflammatory processes are sometimes seen to be critical factors affecting our biology. The stress response helps us get out of the path of the oncoming car or shelters us from falling debris in an earthquake. But if we turn it on while we are stuck in traffic, angry at the boss, experiencing financial difficulties, or dealing with another rejection, it does not benefit us. While some may cope better than others, those who are economically less fortunate and have to cope with issues of poverty may be less able to withstand stressful encounters. Today, health and illness tend to follow a socioeconomic gradient, in which people in lower socioeconomic groups tend to have higher mortality than those in higher socioeconomic groups. In general, those lower down the ladder of income, success, and wealth will exhibit lower health outcomes than those higher up. Societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor do worse in health outcomes overall than societies with a smaller gap because there is more unhealthy stress in unequal societies (United Health Foundation, 2013).

There are exceptions to the gradient in health that present learning opportunities. For example, Latinos or Hispanics appear to have better health outcomes in the U.S. than non-Latino whites, a concept termed the Hispanic Paradox (New America Media, 2012). Reasons for this disparity are debated. One point of view is that the social support Latinos or Hispanics offer one another can counteract some of the adverse effects of having lower socioeconomic status.

For this Discussion, you consider how cultural and economic factors influence those biologic mechanisms that can result in disease for specific segments of the population. You also propose possible policy solutions to reduce the burden of disease.

To prepare for this Discussion, review the Learning Resources. Consider how the determinants of health you have learned about in this class can improve or worsen health for individuals and populations.

Post a brief description of a population segment (by race, ethnicity, economic status, geographical location, etc.). Then, explain the relationship between health inequality/inequities and common biological or behavioral risk factors that have been linked to a particular disease in that population segment. Finally, describe the relationship between health inequality/inequities and life expectancy for that population. Expand on your insights utilizing the Learning Resources.