HSC 4201 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Infant Mortality, Economic Security, Health Promotion
Document Summary
Age is the most important population characteristic to consider when describing the occurrence of disease, injury, and/or death in a population. Community and public health professionals look at rates for specific age groups when comparing the amount of disease between populations. When analyzing data by age they use groups that are narrow enough to detect any age-related patterns which may be present as a result of either the natural life cycle or behavioral patterns. Viewing age-group profiles in this manner enables community and public health workers to identify risk factors for specific age groups within the population and develop interventions aimed at reducing these risk factors. Health promotion and disease prevention programs that are successful in reducing exposure to such risk factors within specific age groups can improve the health status of the entire population. In this chapter, there is a presentation of health profiles of: mothers, infants younger than 1 year, children ages 1 through 9.
