1. What is the difference between population health and public health? Provide an example of each. - Population health is the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group. Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and communities through education, policy making, and research for disease and injury prevention. An example of population health is measuring the prevalence of diabetes among a specific ethnic group. An example of public health is implementing a vaccination program to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. 2. What are the three core functions and 10 essential services of public health? - The three core functions of public health are assessment, policy development, and assurance. The 10 essential services are: - Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems. - Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community. - Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues. - Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems. - Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts. - Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety. - Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable. - Assure competent public and personal health care workforce. - Evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services. - Research for new insights and innovative solutions to health problems. 3. What are the main types of epidemiological studies and what are their advantages and disadvantages? - The main types of epidemiological studies are observational and experimental. Observational studies include cohort, case-control, cross-sectional, and ecological studies. Experimental studies include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies. - Observational studies are studies in which the researcher observes the natural occurrence of exposure and outcome without intervening or manipulating any variables. They are useful for exploring associations, generating hypotheses, and identifying risk factors or protective factors for diseases or conditions. However, they are prone to confounding, bias, and reverse causation, which may affect the validity and reliability of the results. They also cannot establish causality between exposure and outcome.