Tuberculosis is a serious health issue. All the five determinants of population health affect the fatality, prevalence, and incidence of tuberculosis. To start with, access to health care is one of the main determinants of outcomes of tuberculosis infection. A population with low access to healthcare is definitely likely to exhibit high prevalence of tuberculosis assuming that all other determinants are held constant. To illustrate, health care services given to people with TB help prevent, treat, and minimize the transmission of the disease. This helps in reducing the prevalence and fatality of the disease. In geographical regions with poor access to health care facilities, there is likely to be high prevalence and rate of transmission of the disease.
Individual behaviors also affect various aspects of tuberculosis in various ways. The level of practicing healthy behaviors of concern to TB in any given population influences the outcome of the disease significantly. For instance, the rate of transmission of TB is likely to be high in a community where proper ventilation is not given adequate attention. Similarly, there is likely to be high rate of TB transmission in communities where food is shared in such a manner that sputum can be transferred from one individual to another.
Both social and physical environments also influence various aspects of tuberculosis. Social environments refer to factors related to societal norms. Certain beliefs or customs of a society may put people at risk of getting infected with the TB-causing pathogen. Physical environments on the other hand are factors relating to physical infrastructure that at the disposal of a given population. Genetics also play a significant role in various aspects of TB. This is mainly in cases whereby one’s genetic makeup influences one’s immune system. The most influential determinant on TB is individual behavior. To illustrate, studies have shown that TB is most prevalent among people with HIV virus. The main cause of HIV is unprotected sex with infected partner, which is a risky health behavior. In this sense, it can be deduced that individual behavior is the main cause of tuberculosis infection.
Various policies intended to address tuberculosis rely on prevalence, incidence, and other epidemiologic information of the problem (Galea, 2007). For instance, before a health policy is made, the significance or the level of seriousness of a problem it is meant to address is determined. This is done with the help of epidemiologic information such as prevalence, incidence, case fatality, and others. Policy implementers also focus on distribution of a problem when carrying out the implementation task.
References
Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state he Top of Form
Galea, S. (2007). Macrosocial determinants of population health. New York, NY: Springer.
Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state health goals. JAMA, 299(17), 2081–2083.
Labonté, R. N., & Canada. (2003). How our programs affect population health determinants: A workbook for better planning and accountability. Winnipeg: Population and Public Health Branch, Manitoba and Saskatchewan Region.
