Consumer health education

CHS 488

Lecture 2
By Dr. Ebtisam Fetohy-2012
 Consumer Health
I-Patient education, II-School health
education.
III- Occupational Health Education:
 The growing cost of health care combined with
 The increase of preventable acute and chronic
illnesses
Drive the continuing need for comprehensive
worksite health promotion programs.
 Occupational Health Education
The worksite setting provides an
opportunity to implement:
 educational programs;
 policy and
 environmental actions that support
health, which benefit:
 Managers,
 Employees, and, ultimately,
 the community as a whole.
 Occupational Health Education
 Environmental hazards of
many types exist in the
workplace.
 The U S public Health
Service has estimated that
there may be as many as
390,000 new cases of
occupational disease each
year and 100,000 deaths.
 III-Occupational Health Education

Categories of risks to the workers include:

1.Safety hazards or dangerous physical
condition and
2.Health hazards such as high levels of
toxic substances in the immediate
environment.
 III-Occupational Health Education
 The number of carcinogens in the
workplace is growing daily.
 Research has found that for many types of
cancer, there is a long latency period (20-
30 year) following exposure before a
cancer can be detected.
 III-Occupational Health Education
For some cancers, the victim may have
been exposed only for:
• a few weeks or
• may have been exposed indirectly
through:
A- contamination of clothing at work or
B- by living in a community where a high
level of carcinogens is found in the
atmosphere.
 III-Occupational Health Education
Need for occupational health education:
1. Extensive employee educational
programs in order to foster the worker’s
understanding of his/her rights and
responsibilities under the federal‫ااالتاحادية‬
occupational safety and health laws.
 Many large corporations have instituted:
• Annual health screening examinations&
• Counseling programs for executives ‫ااالمدراء‬
‫ ااالتانفيذيين‬and workers alike.
 III-Occupational Health Education
National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) has proposed the
establishment of regional centers to be
primarily involved in:
1-residency‫ ااالمقيمين‬physicians training in
occupational medicine.
2-curriculum development.
3-graduate training in related area such as
industrial hygiene and safety engineering.
 III-Occupational Health Education
A major problem is:
The employees’ fear of:
• Cancer and
• Other industrial diseases coupled with their
equally
• Strong fear of plant closing (due to high
toxicity levels) and the possible loss of their
jobs.
 Many workers come to terms with potential
dangers by denying the possibility of cancer
in the worksite.
 III-Occupational Health Education
 A concerted ‫مشتاركة‬efforts by:
• Management------ ‫ادارة‬
• Unions------ ‫اتاحاداتنااقابية‬
• Health professionals
• The workers themselves.
 This concerted effort is needed for all to come
to grips with the problems of occupational
diseases.
 The task force report concluded:
“ The same four factors that hamper ‫يااع وق‬other
forms of Health Education are present, namely:
 III-Occupational Health Education
:Barriers to occupational health education
.individual ignorance- 1
2- public apathy ‫اااللمبااا ةل‬.
commercial pressure and- 3
lack of strong positive leadership on the- 4
:part of either
A. The government or
B. The health professions,
All negatively affect occupational health
programs.
 Physical activity and fitness
 Nutrition and weight control
 Stress reduction
 Worker safety and health
 Blood pressure and/or cholesterol
education and control
 Alcohol, smoking and drugs
 Reduce medical care costs
 Enhance productivity
 Enhance the image‫صااورة‬ of the
company
 Worksite Health Promotion ~
Practitioners Perspective
Relatively new phenomenon (mid-1970s)…
On-site programs…
Programs vary widely in content and focus…
Some programs offer during work hours, some before
and after work hours…
Some totally funded, some employee-employer
funded…
Rationale: (1) Employee spends 1/3 of his life on the
job. We have a captive ‫ اسير‬audience.
(2) Healthy employees save the employer money.
(3) Morale and turnover‫ مبيع ات‬are positively impacted.
Sites of occupational education
Private clubs (Gold’s Gym)
Parks ‫متانزهات‬and Recreation Depts.
College’s/Universities
Hospitals
Condo ‫ شااقة خاصة‬/Apartment complexes
Hotels
Resorts‫ مصايف‬and Cruise ‫جولتباااحرية‬lines
.Advantages of employment in Worksite H.P

Opportunity for prevention emphasis

Access to individuals who might not
participate in community programs
Diverse groups of people (upper
management to blue collar workers)
Generally a high degree of job satisfaction
Pay and benefits generally good
Access to fitness facilities for personal use
Disadvantages in Worksite setting
Long and irregular hours (e.g., shift work)
Not much room for advancement ‫تااااقدم‬
Program is low on the corporate priority list
Subcontracting‫ تااااع اقد ثاااانوي‬may take over‫يااسيطر‬
Strong pressure to be a role model
Why Community Health Education?
 Community-Based Health Education: A
key to prevention and early detection

 Because Over the last century, the

leading causes of death have shifted
from infectious diseases to chronic
behavioral oriented types of diseases.
 Community/Public Health Education:
Joint Committee on Health Education…
…the application of a variety of methods that result in
the education and mobilization of community members
in actions for resolving health issues and problems
which affect the community.

These methods include, but are not limited to, group

process, mass media, communication, community
organization, organization development, strategic
planning, skills training, legislation, policy making, and
advocacy.
 Community Health Programs
Basic premise: The
health of a community is
the sum total of the health
of the individuals
comprising that
community..
The present day leading causes of death
result from lifestyle choices or behaviors:
• Injury,
• Violence, and
• Other factors in the environment; and
unavailability or inaccessibility of quality
health programs and services.
While health promotion in schools, health
care centers, and worksites provides
targeted interventions for specific
population groups, community-based
programs can reach the entire population.
 IV-Community health education
It is the program designed to help people
develop:
1. Necessary attitudes,
2. Knowledge and
3. Practices for optimal state of health for
themselves, their families and communities.
They are offered through:
• Federal, state and local public agencies,
• Charitable ‫خيرية‬organization,
• Voluntary ‫طوعية‬agencies and
• Hospitals.
 IV-Community health education
 Many hospitals are involved in community
programs offering education on specific
diseases and general health information. For
e.g., a typical hospital with an active
community health education program may
offer:
1. diabetes;
2. ostomy and
3. cardiac as well as smoking clinics;
4. parental ‫ أبوية‬and parenting ‫ أبوة‬classes;
IV-Community health education, cont
5. obesity programs
6. a cardiopulmonary resuscitation course;
7. industrial health education;
8. drug education and
9. program concerning venereal diseases.
 The objectives should be:
1.Identification of the needs and
2.Determination of specific health risk factors that
exist in the community.
 Risk factors vary depending on the :
• racial;
• socioeconomic and
• occupational structure of the community.
IV-Community health education
Once the community’s needs have been
identified, programs can be designed to
meet them.
 The major problem of Community HE are:
• Insufficient program funding and
• Inability of many agencies to involve
consumers in their programs.
 IV-Community health education
It is essential that community programs be
designed with the consumer in mind so that:
1. Language difference;
2. Economic conditions and
3. Consumers’ free time to attend such
programs are taken into consideration.
Where the majority of both men and women
hold jobs, programs should be arranged at
appropriate hours.
4. Another major problem of community
health programs is the lack of compliance.
IV-Community health education
Many individual consumers do not follow
up on risk factors identified through
community screening programs.

Even after thorough ‫شااامل‬program of

telephone calls and letters, the compliance
rate is frequently very low.
Included in the community setting are:
 public facilities;
 local government agencies; and
 social service, faith, and civic ‫مدني‬
organizations that provide channels to
reach people where they live, work, and
play.
 They can be strong advocates for
educational, policy, and environmental
changes throughout the community.
 Places of worship ‫ااالعبادة‬may be a particularly
important setting for health promotion
initiatives, and they may effectively reach
some underserved populations.
 A Day in the Life of a Community
Health Educator
Advantages/Disadvantages of Working in
Community/Public Health Education:
ADVANTAGES:
1. Highly varied and dynamic job
responsibilities
2. Strong prevention orientation ‫تااااوجيه‬
3. High community profile
4. Work with multiple groups (ethnicities)
5. High degree of self-satisfaction
 Disadvantages of working in
Community/Public Health Education
1. Low pay, especially in the voluntary health
agencies
2. If employment depends upon soft‫ااالسااهل‬
money, job security is tenuous…‫ضااعيف‬
3. Volunteers can be unreliable and
irresponsible…
4. Lack of funding is always a problem.
 V-National health and health
related agency programs
These programs differ from those already
mentioned because they are sponsored
by voluntary nonprofit agencies as well as
profit making agencies.
 Two sources of employment:
1. Voluntary Health Agencies: Address health
needs not met by government
agencies….American Cancer Society,
American Heart Association, American Lung
Association.
2. Public Health Agencies: Government health
agencies (tax supported)…Public Health
Departments.
 V-National health and health related
agency programs
For e.g., because of its extensive public
information program, the American Cancer
Society’s “seven danger signals” have
widely known by the public:
1. Unusual bleeding/discharge:
• Blood in urine or stool
• Discharge from any part of the body, for e.g.,
nipple, penis, etc.
V-National health and health related
agency programs
2. A sore which does not heel: sores that:
• Don’t seem to be getting better over time
• Are getting bigger
• Getting more painful
• Are starting to bleed.
3.Change in bowel or bladder habits:
• Change in the color, consistency, size, or
shape, of stool (diarrhea, constipation)
• Blood present in urine or stool.
V-National health and health related
agency programs
4. Lump in breast or other part of the body:
• Any lump found in the breast when doing
a self examination.
• Any lump in scrotum when doing a self
examination
• Other lumps found on the body.
V-National health and health related
agency programs
5. Nagging ‫مزعجة‬cough:
• Change in voice and hoarseness
• Cough that doesn’t go away
• Sputum with blood
6.Obvious change in moles‫شااامات‬: use the
ABCD roles:
• Asymmetry: Does the mole look the same
in all parts or are there differences?
• Border: are the borders sharp or
ragged‫? خشن‬
• Color: what are the colors seen in the
mole?
• Diameter: is the mole bigger than a pencil
eraser (6 mm)?
 V-National health and health related
agency programs
7.Difficulty in swallowing:
• Feeling of pressure in throat or chest which makes
swallowing uncomfortable
• Feeling of full without food or with small amount of
food.
 Such groups as:
• weight watchers;
• Alcoholics anonymous; and
• Smoke Enders, are only a few of the numerous
organizations that have a health message to impart.
 However, general health education is not their major
objective.
 V-National health and health
related agency programs
:Advantage
• They manage to affect the public’s lifestyle
in areas where professional health
education has failed.
• These health and health related agencies
have an impact upon society in many
areas of consumer health education.
 V-National health and health
related agency programs
 Frequently, one’s experience with a disease
or condition gives one a much better
perspective for, related to it and teaching
others who are similarly afflicted.

 For e.g., the Reach for Recovery program of

the American Cancer Society utilizes
volunteers who have undergone mastectomy
operations in the rehabilitation of recent
mastectomy patients( self- help group).
 VI-The Media
People get information about health from
media especially Television.
According to Harris Poll commissioned by the
Blue Cross Association, 29% of the people
surveyed reported that they received most of
health and medical information from TV
advertising.
Only doctors exceed the media in providing
health information.
This might be positive indicator. If the
information received from the media were
accurate.
 VI-The Media
Disadvantages:
However, investigation have revealed that much
of the information regarding health was:
• Inaccurate;
• Misleading or both.
Advantages:
Television and the media in general, offer an
excellent vehicle for health information which is
both:
• Accurate and
• Relevant.
 VI-The Media
Most people have seen and assimilated‫تااااستاوعب‬
information from:
• health documentaries‫ااالوثائقيات‬,
• public broadcasting, or
• advertising provided by health agencies.
Health message advertising is most effective in areas
of:
• Smoking
• Venereal diseases (VD);
• Hypertension and
• Sickle- cell anemia.
 VI-The Media
It has been estimated that daily Radio
audience exceeds116 million adults and
T.V audience exceeds 64 million adults.
Given that potential combined with
readership of printed media. One can
easily see the advantages of utilizing
mass media for HE purposes.
 VI-The Media
Needs :
There is a definite need for the media to:
 Regulate the preparation of appropriate
broadcast materials and a need for:
 Clearly defined accountability ‫مسؤولية‬to
the public;
 There is also need for health educators
and broadcasters to cooperate in the
development of health education
Programming.
 Landing ‫تااااوجيه‬the First Job
Summer employment in health ed
settings
Volunteer work in health ed
settings
Develop a professional portfolio
Certifications (CHES)
Faculty recommendations
Professional organizations
GRADUATE SCHOOL