COMMUNITY HEALTH

Community: A community is a group of people who have common characteristics. Communities can be defined by location, race, ethnicity, age, occupation, interest in particular problems or results or other common connections.

Community Health:

Community health is a field of public health a discipline which concerns with the study and improvement of the health characteristics by protecting and improving the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, diseases and prevention methods. 

Community health professionals analyze the effects on health of genetics, personal choice and the environment in order to develop programs that protect the health of your family and the community. 

Fundamentals of Community Health

·         The fundamentals of community health include:

·         History of community health practice

·         Factors affecting community and population health and

·      The tools of community health practice. These tools include epidemiology, community organizing, health promotion, disease prevention, planning, management, and evaluation.

Community health is studied under three broad categories:

1.    Primary Healthcare

Primary healthcare denotes the first level of interaction between individuals and families with the health system which includes family planning, immunization, prevention of locally occurring endemic diseases, treatment of common diseases or injuries, provision of essential facilities, health education, provision of food and nutrition and adequate supply of safe drinking water. Primary Healthcare is provided through Sub centers and in rural areas, whereas in urban areas through Health posts and Family Welfare Centers.

2.    Secondary Health Care

Secondary Healthcare refers to a second level of health system, in which patients from primary health care are referred to specialists in higher hospitals for further treatment. The health centers for secondary health care include District hospitals and Community Health Centers at block level.

3.    Tertiary Health Care

Tertiary Health care refers to a third level of health system, in which specialized counseling care is provided usually on referral from primary and secondary health care. These includes Specialized Intensive Care Units, advanced diagnostic support services and specialized medical personnel on the key features of tertiary health care. Under public health system, tertiary care services are provided by medical colleges and advanced medical research institutes.

Factors that Affect Community Health:

The factors that affect the health of a community include:

Physical factors: related to geography (parasitic diseases), environment (availability of natural resources), community size (overcrowding), and industrial development (pollution).

Social and cultural factors: beliefs, traditions, and prejudices (smoking in public places, availability of ethnic foods, racial disparities), economy (employee health care benefits), politics (government participation), religion (beliefs about medical treatment), social norms (drinking in a college campus), and socioeconomic status (number of people below poverty level).

Community organization: available health agencies such as (local health department, voluntary health agencies) and the ability to organize with solving problem (city council).

Individual behavior: personal behavior includes exercising, getting immunized, and recycling wastes.

Community Diseases:

A disease is the condition of an organism experiencing impaired function often with detrimental symptoms. A symptom is the body’s response to a disease and often is an indicator to diagnose the type of disease.

A disease outbreak is the occurrence of disease in surplus of what normally be expected in a defined community, geographical area or season. An outbreak may occur in a restricted geographical area, or may extend over several countries. It may last for a few days or weeks or for several years too.

The amount of a particular disease that usually present in a community is referred to baseline or endemic level of the disease. The disease may continue to occur at this level indefinitely. Thus, the baseline level is often considered as the expected level of disease.

Several factors like genetics, age, nutrition or pathogen (microorganisms) can lead to disease occurrence in humans.

Communicable or infectious diseases are often transmitted by pathogens and are easily spread from one person to another through contact and proximity. They spread through the air, water or soil or animal intermediates.

Non-communicable diseases are known as chronic diseases which are not transmitted from person to person. They are of long duration and generally slow in progression. The main types of non-communicable diseases are cardiovascular diseases (heart attack and stroke), cancer, chronic respiratory diseases (chronic obstructed pulmonary disease and asthma) and diabetes.