PUBLIC HEALTH 1

Public health

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Introduction 

Community health can be defined as an intersection between social interactions, economic a

healthcare. However, there are many people who are not aware of the major role that is played

by the kind healthcare of every person in their daily lives. Coovadia et al. (2019) gave a complex

definition of community health as a medical specialty which aims its focus mental and physical

wellbeing of individuals in certain geographical locations. WHO (2014) defined health as state of

being completely free from mental, social well-being and physical issues and not an indication of

absence of diseases. This study will focus on general concept of health, determinants, social

political factors influences delivery of healthcare services among other issues.

Overview and determinants of health

Health can be described as a state where an individual has complete mental, social and physical

well-being. It does not necessarily mean the absence of infirmity or disease (Tweed et al., 2018).

The enjoyment of the highest standard that can be attained in health is among the fundamental

rights that every human being without distinction of political belief, race, religion, social

condition, and economic factors. 

WHO (2014) stated that many factors could be combined to have an effective health individual

and community. Regardless of whether people are healthy or not, the best determinant is the

environment and circumstances. Largely, some factors include where a person lives,

environmental state, education levels, levels of income, a relationship between use and the

family and friends, and genetics, which greatly impact the health levels. Also, other common

considerations considered in determining health levels include the ability to access health care

services, although the factors are believed to have less impact on health. 
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According to CDC (2011), there are three common determinants of health: the physical

environment, the social and economic environment, and a person's characteristics and behaviors.

According to the WHO (2014), the context in which someone's life is based determines health.

Therefore it is inappropriate to credit or blaming an individual because of having good or poor

health. It is so unlikely that individuals can have direct control over health determinants. The

main determinants of health are as described below. 

Income and social status; there is a link between income levels and social status with health.

People who have higher income or who live a life of higher status are assumed to have access to

better health than an individual who has lower income levels (WHO, 2014). The larger the gap

between the poor and the rich and creates a gap between the health of the two groups.

Additionally, lower level education is linked to poor health, lower self-esteem, and more stress.

The physical environment has a link to health. People who can access safe water, clean air, safe

houses, roads, and healthy workplaces are more likely to have better health than those who have

limited access to all the above factors. There are other determinants of health, including social

support networks, i.e., traditions, and the levels of support from families and friends; genetics

such as inheritance, personal behavior such as smoking; health services, and gender, where in

most cases, male and female suffer from different kinds of diseases. 

Glasgow city demography and factors influencing delivery of health and social care

Glasgow is one of the largest cities in Scotland, and also it is the fourth largest in the UK. The

area map covered by this city is about 68 square miles, where the largest percentage of the

population is the urban communities. The city has a growing population ever since the best first

value report was reported in 2006. The population has grown continuously by about 90 percent,
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and currently, it is standing at about 621,000. There is a forecast that the population will continue

to grow by about 7 percent between 2014 and 2039. Specifically, the number of the population

aged above 74 years I projected to be increasing with about 54 percent will be a replacement of

the extra demand for health care services and social care services. Additionally, the number of

young people and children between the age 0 and 15 years are projected to have risen by about

6.7 percent which will create an increased need for schools and other children services. 

On the other hand, Glasgow city council is among the largest in Scotland with more than 31 000

employees who include those working for their arm-length external organizations. This is the

largest employer in the city. The council delivers different kinds of services to hundreds of

thousands of people who come from different backgrounds. 

A statutory that was developed in Scotland about public body’s act 2014 with regulations

associated with the provision of legislative framework within which adults' social and health care

services in Scotland are covered. The legislation provided a requirement for NHS boards and

local authorities. It made the interaction of planning, governance, and resourcing of social care

services for adults and adult primary care community health services and some hospital services.

The NHS health boards and local authorizes were given a requirement in which a draft was

submitted so that the scheme could be submitted and approval made by the minister of health in

Scotland by April 2015. 

One of the challenges that are faced in delivering health care services includes material

deprivation. A researcher Schneider (2020), highlighted that individuals living in a poor housing

condition such as housing that does not have dumping sites, cold houses, houses where water

penetrates, and houses that do have adequate space that allows continuous circulation of the air

have been reported to having a feeling of embarrassment and there is a reluctance in visiting.
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This has provided room for people not caring about their health because they feel that they can't

access good health. Another report pointed out that a large population in this city is experiencing

major difficulties when it comes to financial issues, which make them concern themselves with

shelter and food leaving health issues unsolved. 

Research that aimed to explore the relationship between young people and alcohol indicated that

the largest percentage of young people engaged in excessive alcohol consumption. The

researcher further found out that there has been a normalization of excessive alcohol

consumption among young adults (Harden et al., 2018). This was reported to be a result of the

freedom that has been given to the young generation, although it is a long-term health risk to the

consumers. Reinforcement by young people has increased a delay to develop fully into adults

who are identifiable because they have ventured more into an alcoholic at a young age which

delays their ability to enter into the labor market. This have influenced the delivery of health care

in Glasgow in two different ways; the first way the youths who are consuming excess alcohol

puts their health in the long term in danger because excess consumption is harmful. Secondly,

there is a delay of these young people to join the labor market, which means that there is an

increased dependency, which increases the poverty rate. As explained earlier, poverty is

associated with poor health. 

Public Health issue within Scotland

Bennett and Glasgow's (2009) mentioned that according a report by the National Records of

Scotland the total number of deaths because of alcohol consumption in in Scotland was

determined to have decreased by 10% from a total of 1,136 which was recorded in 2018 to 1020

that was recorded in 2019. The report also indicated that the total number of people who
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committed suicide and are drunkards were 833 which was a 6% increase from the previous year.

The number of people who have dead accidentally in cases such as alcoholic poisoning were a

2,726 which was also an increase by 8.5%. After an adjustment was done about the age and the

rates of deaths, the total number of people who are in deprived areas are a total of 1.9 the number

of people in least deprived areas. The gap was believed to have increase overtime to a ratio of

1.6. However, the current figures indicate that, there is a notable reduction in the total number of

deaths due to alcohol. Since the beginning of records of alcoholic related deaths, there are times

when a record of up to 10% of total deaths reduction even within a year is recorded. However,

there can be a magnitude although there is a need to test whether the reduction is a continue

process or it was just for little while and then the trend of increased deaths continues.

Public health issue and strategies of dealing with the issue

With the basis of the alcoholic issue in Scortland that has been causing increasing deaths every

time, there are frameworks that have been developed already in order to minimize the damages

that alcoholic consumption have been causing. One of the updated frameworks that have been

developed include; Scotland 2009 alcoholic strategy. The framework is well established in order

to perform the expected action. According to a report by WHO (2014), some of the actions have

been completed already while others are yet to be completed. The actions are stills ongoing

where most of them have adopted an evidence base approach as the main alcoholic control

strategy. The frameworks that are updated have retained similar three main themes including

positive attitude and positive choices, supporting communities and families and reducing of

consumptions.
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Also, the document is set to the national pr3vention with an aim of preventing towards alcoholic

issues. It includes activities that are expected to help in reduction of consumption and

minimization of alcohol related harm in the first place. The document is in line with the priorities

of public health priorities in Scotland where the main aim is Scotland’s reduction of harm caused

by alcohol, and other drugs such as tobacco. A strategy is overarching for treatment and

prevention of alcohol and other related drugs.

With the basis of the world and alcohol policies there was an introduction of minimum unit

pricing on 1st of May 2018, where Scotland has become one of the world leaders when it comes

to alcohol related policies. There is continues share of experiences within Europe and

internationally. In the year 2015, a Global Alcohol policy alliance conference was help in

Scotland which was the only country in Europe that have ever held the conference. In the year

2016 the country was awarded the inaugural Europe reducing Harm Related to Alcohol in

Slovenia. The government of Scotland gives a definition of high risk alcohol as drinking that is

above the lower risk with the maximum amount.

Based on the results of the strategies there is an increased performance of the strategy in that; the

strategies have assisted in reducing the harm including the social care and health care, drug and

alcohol partnership and also there are other local partnerships such as third sectors. The

government is working with the WHO, in developing of principles related to alcohol. The

governments have avoided working with the alcohol industry in reducing the impact.

Among the ways of minimize the effect that alcohol is having in Scotland, there are some

achievement that have been achieved. Of the achievement is that, there is a continues approach

of whole population which help in reducing the rates of alcohol consumption and the related

risks. Where alcohol markets have been changed in that, they have introduced ban of quantity
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discount that have caused a 2.6% reduction in alcohol consumption. As well, irresponsible

promotions of alcohol was terminated in order to reduce the rate in which consumers are being

encouraged to consume the alcohol, and strop encouraging them to consume more than what

they initially intended.it have also been possible to regulate places where alcohol is being sold

which have reduced the rates of alcohol impulse buying. In order to prevent young people from

alcohol consumption, the government together with the WHO has introduced the mandatory age

verification for example the 25 years challenge. Young people are being enlightened and given

better alternative activities in order to avoid alcohol such as enlightening them through

education. Finally, there are activities that are worked towards getting a safer community which

is done through a range of initiatives such as encouragement of a safer environment for drinking.

Conclusion 

It can be concluded that one of the cities that have make great investment in policies related to

alcohol is Scotland. As described in the study, there are many benefits that the country accrued

from the policies in lowering the deaths that were being reported earlier before the policies were

implemented. Among the benefits were, reduction of selling alcohol to people under the age of

18 where the sellers found selling alcohol to people who are underage have their licenses

terminated. Therefore, all the strategies are effective and have helped the country to have

positive outcomes.
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References

Bennett, G.G. and Glasgow, R.E., 2009. The delivery of public health interventions via the

Internet: actualizing their potential. Annual review of public health, 30, pp.273-292.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 1999. Ten great public health achievements--

United States, 1900-1999. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 48(12),

pp.241-243.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2011. Ten great public health achievements--

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pp.619-623.

Coovadia, H., Jewkes, R., Barron, P., Sanders, D. and McIntyre, D., 2009. The health and health

system of South Africa: historical roots of current public health challenges. The

Lancet, 374(9692), pp.817-834.

Cromley, E.K. and McLafferty, S.L., 2011. GIS and public health. Guilford Press.

Harden, S.M., Smith, M.L., Ory, M.G., Smith-Ray, R.L., Estabrooks, P.A. and Glasgow, R.E.,

2018. RE-AIM in clinical, community, and corporate settings: perspectives, strategies,

and recommendations to enhance public health impact. Frontiers in public health, 6,

p.71.

Schneider, M.J., 2020. Introduction to public health. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

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Tweed, E.J., Rodgers, M., Priyadarshi, S. and Crighton, E., 2018. “Taking away the chaos”: a

health needs assessment for people who inject drugs in public places in Glasgow,

Scotland. BMC public health, 18(1), pp.1-9.

World Health Organization, 2014. Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014 (No.

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