 |
|
|
|
|
Syndemics Overview - Trends
For some time now cross-cutting trends have affected both the science
and practice of public health. These trends include shifts in problem
solving as well as management. Taken together, the emerging priorities in
public health (Table 5) seem to reflect a struggle to overcome constraints
imposed by the categorical perspective used throughout the public health
system. Using a syndemic orientation, it might be possible to better
define the conditions under which categorically organized interventions
can be effective and the extent to which fragmentation of the public
health system might itself be a barrier to the goal of protecting the
public's health.
Table 5: Emerging Priorities in Public Health
| |
Trends and Emerging Priorities |
| Steps
in Public Health Problem Solving |
| Define
the problem
| Eliminating
health disparities |
| Quality
of life |
| Determine
the cause
| Social
determinants of health |
| Community
context |
| Adverse
childhood experiences |
| Develop
and test interventions
| Comprehensive
community initiatives |
| Ecological
interventions |
| Implement
Programs/Policies
| Policy
interventions |
| Change
community conditions and systems |
| Adapt
to local context |
| Management
Processes |
| Creating
a science base for action
| Community-based
prevention research |
| Guide
to community preventive services |
| Best
practices recommendations |
| Forging
partnerships
| Organizational
coalitions |
| Community
engagement and participation |
| Planning
intervention strategy
| Logic
models (theories of change) |
| Mobilizing
action through planning and partnership (MAPP) |
| Using
information
| Evidence-based
decision making |
| Surveillance
integration |
| Knowledge
management |
| Measuring
performance
| Outcome
indicators |
| Community
indicators and report cards |
| Health
employer data and information system (HEDIS) |
| Summary
measures of population health |
| Conducting
evaluations
| Framework
for program evaluation |
| Meeting
accountability requirements
| Government
performance and results act |
| Public
health performance standards |
| Strengthening
infrastructure
| Workforce
development |
| Community
capacity |
| Organizational
networks |
| Leveraging
resources
| Advocacy |
| Litigation |
| Public-private
partnerships |
| Philanthropy |
|
Faced with increasingly complex problems in communities, practitioners
are reorganizing and realigning their work and in the process challenging
traditional assumptions about prevention science. As trends continue to
draw community residents and public health workers into more complex
participatory initiatives, and as demand grows for obtaining scientific
evidence of effectiveness, the need to understand more about syndemics
will predictably increase.
Next: Areas for
exploration >>
Back to top
Page last reviewed: January 30, 2008
Page last modified: January 30, 2008
Content source: Division of Adult
and Community Health,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
|
|
