12a. Test your Knowledge of Population-Level Approaches to Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

As the title indicates, the purpose of this module is to review the key population health concepts and strategies you’ve learned over the past 11 weeks. Rather than introduce you to new material at this juncture, I encourage you to test your knowledge of population health interventions with the following self-assessment. You may find it helpful for reviewing important material for your iterative assignment.

1. Which of the following is NOT a necessary pre-condition to justify a population health intervention?

a. showing with reasonable certainly that behaviour or social conditions can influence health in a predictable way.

b. proving that only those at highest risk of a problem will benefit from the intervention.

c. demonstrating that what we do as public health practitioners would not have happened or happened to the same extent or with the same speed if we hadn’t done anything.

d. showing that changing behaviour can ameliorate or reduce the excess health risk associated with that behaviour or social condition.

2. Systems theory relies on __________ to illustrate the inter-connectivity of key factors affecting a health issue.

a. logic models

b. decision trees

c. causal loop diagrams

d. venn diagrams

3. Healthy public policy options encompass:

a. taxation, regulations, and mandatory health education

b. taxation, voluntary measures, and fiscal measures

c. regulations, fiscal measures, and community input

d. taxation, regulations, and fiscal measures

4. Which of the following would NOT be considered a social determinant of health?

a. food insecurity

b. social exclusion

c. biology and genetic endowment

d. education

5. The PRE in the Precede-Proceed model stands for:

a. Pre-existing, reinforcing, and enabling

b. Predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling

c. Predisposing, rational, and enabling

d. Predisposing, reinforcing, and effective

6. The prevention paradox refers to:

a. the tendency for many more people at low-to-moderate risk to acquire preventable diseases than the small number of people at higher risk.

b. the tendency for many more people at moderate risk to acquire preventable diseases than the small number of people at high risk.

c. the fact that most people eventually require treatment for chronic disease regardless of population health interventions.

d. the tendency for many more people at low-to moderate risk to succumb to preventable diseases than the small number of people at higher risk.

7. Which of the following statements about social capital is NOT true?

a. Social capital refers to the key aspects of social organization — such as community or civic engagement, norms of reciprocity, and a sense of trust in others — that foster collaboration for collective benefit

b. In the context of community mobilization addressing population health issues, social capital can be regarded as both an existing community asset as well as a desired outcome if a lack of social capital is identified as a deficit.

c. In practice, social capital theory is commonly associated with "macro-level" community-based interventions.

d. Robert Putnam’s view of social capital emphasizes concern with cohesive community networks, shared norms, and social trust in order to facilitate greater cooperation for mutual benefit.

8. Based on your knowledge of behaviour change theories, which of the following is NOT a pre-condition for behaviour change?

a. There are no environmental constraints (barriers) that make it impossible for the behaviour to occur.

b. The person perceives more social (normative) pressure to perform the behaviour than not to do so.

c. The person embraces good health as an important outcome to achieve.

d. The person has the skills necessary to perform the behaviour.

9. How can fear appeal public service announcements be designed in a way that avoids stigmatizing individuals who may already be suffering from the consequences of unhealthy behaviours?

a. by minimizing the degree of alarm or "fear" conveyed by the message

b. by emphasizing the need to for structural changes addressing the social determinants of health contributing to poor health outcomes at the population level

c. by noting realistic, incremental changes individuals can make to improve their health

d. by indicating where individuals can seek help

10. Pre-identifying an appropriate range of outcomes for a population health intervention is known as:

a. situational assessment

b. evaluability assessment

c. strategic planning

d. asset mapping

11. Which of the following is a key indicator of increased allostatic load associated with growing up in an economically disadvantaged environment?

a. hypertension

b. depression

c. increased cortisol levels

d. decreased cytokine levels

12. Which of the following modifications to a population health intervention have the potential to reduce its impact?

a. modifying some aspects of activities

b. reducing the "dose" or duration of the intervention

c. modifying or replacing cultural references

d. eliminating key intervention components

e. b and c

f. b and d

13. According to Rothman, a task-oriented approach to community mobilization that stresses rational problem solving through the use of outside change agents who gather facts about community problems and recommend "evidence-based" solutions is known as:

a. locality development

b. social planning

c. social action

d. community-based

14. __________ are conducted when population health practitioners sometimes want to see if a new population health intervention is more successful than a standard program or practice that has been in place for some time.

a. Comparative effectiveness designs

b. Time series designs

c. Randomized control trials

d. Observational studies

15. Which of the following is NOT a core principle of an ecological approach to population health?

a. Personal characteristics operate independently of environmental conditions in influencing health and well-being

b. Health and well-being are influenced by a wide variety of environmental factors.

c. Within the context of structured community settings, certain behaviours and roles exert pivotal influences on well-being.

d. Personal characteristics and environmental conditions have direct and interactive effects on health and well-being.

16. The creative use of environmental supports or cues that encourage people to make a healthy choice is known as:

a. positive persuasion

b. enabling

c. environmental efficacy

d. nudging

17. __________ select a set of studies addressing a particular research question and evaluate the results of these studies to reach conclusions about an entire field of research

a. Literature reviews

b. Systematic reviews

c. Scoping reviews

d. Environmental scans

18. Which of the following is NOT a key argument against the adoption of healthy public policies?

a. Policies cost too much to implement

b. Policies are too difficult to monitor and enforce

c. Policies restrict individual freedom

d. There are more effective "non-policy" solutions

19. Which of the following are reasonable outcomes to expect from a health communication campaign?

a. Increase audience knowledge and awareness of a health issue, problem, or solution

b. Produce sustained change in complex health behaviours without supportive environments and policies

c. Refute myths or misconceptions regarding a health issue

d. a and b

e. a and c

f. none of the above

20. Which of the following statements best describes desirable attributes of population health intervention objectives?

a. narrow, precise, and concrete

b. broad, measurable, precise, and achievable

c. specific, achievable, and difficult to measure

d. specific, measurable, and time-bound

e. a and d

f. a and b

g. a and c

Please return to Module 12. Putting the Pieces Together: Review and Consolidation