Population health, epidemiology and prevention in paediatrics — formative SAQs

SAQ 1 (10 marks)

Your district reports rising toddler scald admissions. A journalist asks whether “more parenting classes” alone will fix it. Practice immunisation coverage is 91% overall but 55% in temporary housing. ^{[1] [3] [5]}

1. Define population health for the children attached to your service. (2) ^[1]
2. Construct a brief Haddon matrix for kettle scalds and list one pre-event environmental lever. (4) ^{[3] [4]}
3. Explain why unstratified 91% coverage can still be a population-health failure. (2) ^{[1] [5] [7]}
4. State one clinic action and one system action you would take next. (2) ^{[5] [7]}

Model answer — SAQ 1

Definition (2): Population health is the health outcomes of a defined group of children (here, the service panel or district cohort), including the distribution of those outcomes within the group—not only average clinic attenders. ^[1]

Haddon (4): Host (toddler motor skills, supervision supports), agent (hot liquid energy), environment (kettle cord, kitchen layout, product design). Phases: pre-event, event, post-event. Pre-event environmental lever example: cordless kettle design, cord restraints, or barrier to stove/kettle zone. ^{[3] [4]}

Coverage equity (2): Outcomes include distribution. A high average can hide severe under-coverage in temporary housing, so preventable disease concentrates in that subgroup. ^{[1] [5] [7]}

Actions (2): Clinic—active outreach catch-up immunisation and social needs linkage for temporary-housing families. System—advocate product standards/housing safety and equitable recall design. ^{[5] [7]}