Health Capital is a play on the term 'Social Capital'. Social Capital is a very fashionable paradigm for the explanation of differences in health and illness between social groups. This is a sociological theory that states that the quantity and quality of a person's social relationships and social networks play an important part in the maintenance of their physical and mental health and in their recovery from an illness. In other words, the more people you know and the type of people you know will affect your health. (For example, if you have lots of friends and work in a professional environment, you are more likely to have access to information about health and good health care). Related to this is the term, 'Cultural Capital', which refers to the familiarity someone has with the dominant culture in a society, especially the ability to understand and use 'educated' language. There has been some research to show that the more cultural capital you have, the better your educational achievements. So, I've decided it's time to have 'Health Capital', that is, the more you know about health and illness, the greater your ability to stay healthy!
Public Health, the lesser known twin of the celebrity Clinical Medicine, has finally come into the limelight. For years, people knew little of the contribution public health can make to general health but now its concepts are spreading and fast!... Read more
Can social marketing revamp health promotion? Read more
Eye health comes to the fore of health promotion. Read more
In public health, we sometimes call our presentations 'roadshows', because we are bringing health issues to the attention of various audiences (e.g. GPs, midwives, health visitors, schools, PCT staff).
Here are some drcath presentations that you can use to communicate to colleagues and friends on some important public health issues.
Symptoms include heart palpitations, fear of dying and inability to speak or think clearly. Not to be confused with 'White Coat Syndrome', a situation where patients have high blood pressure in the doctor's office but nowhere else. Treatment involves teaching the mind to attach different feelings to doctors. Results from an RCT on 'House' versus 'Diagnosis Murder' are pending!
Just picture the GP. "Mr Jones, I think you suffer from Hippoptomonstrosesquippedaliophobia!" The patients will never move so fast through the care pathway! Unless, they also suffer from 'latrophobia' that is.
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