MU Researcher’s model identifies health risks around the world
A researcher at the MU School of Medicine has developed a public health model that reaches across borders and oceans to help urban and rural areas with an all too common problem: lacking the funding to prevent and stop the spread of chronic diseases.
The Public Health Index helps prevention programs prioritize diseases and health risks that are most prevalent in a particular region. Most recently, the PHI mapped health risks in the urban populations of Brazil.
Eduardo Simoes, chair of the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the school of medicine and lead author of the study, explained that the PHI compiles data from hundreds of health indicators to help governments prioritize funding for the health risks affecting the most people.
“Using the Public Health Index model, we found hypertension, physical inactivity, insufficient blood pressure screening, high cholesterol, smoking and binge drinking to be the leading burdens that have the highest impact on public health in Brazil,” he said. “Our findings present a road map for developing and implementing prevention programs.”
In his work with Brazil in 2010, Simoes also worked to complete two separate Priority Health Indices: a risk-factor based PHI and a disease-based PHI.
“The risk-factor based PHI supports planning and decision making for primary and secondary prevention diseases,” Simoes said. “The disease based PHI supports planning and decision making for tertiary prevention of diseases.”
The risk-factor PHI, Simoes said, is designed to possible eliminate risk factors, such as kids and teenagers being exposed to smoking.
The second PHI is designed to help detect diseases early, so the chances of a cure may be higher. As an example, Simoes explained that if cervical cancer is caught early, through a Papanicolaou test, the chances of a cure near 100 percent.
“In planning and decision-making, health officials use many tools,” Simoes said. “The PHI is a tool that should be used in addition to others because it can highlight top health priorities for specific regions, which later can be used to justify distributing funds and other resources to address the risk identified.”
Simoes recent study focused specifically on Brazil’s urban cities, but his PHI model has been implemented in Italy since 2009 and in the state of Missouri since 200o. These success point toward a promising, if distant, future of mainstream adoption.
“Usually, the time it takes from discovery to practice is long, especially in the health field,” Simoes said. “Sometimes even the best, most brilliant and useful research ideas never make it to practice due to a lot of other reasons, including luck and the medium used to disseminate research.”
Photo provided by the MU News Bureau.
