The Work of the Enterprise - Assignment Example

?Demography and Epidemiology Introduction Demography can be simply defined as the statistical study of human populations. As Edge (2007, p.49) defines, demography is a branch of science that specifically deals with different aspects of human populations including its size, density, changes, and characteristics. “Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to control health problems” (Mckenzie et al. 2011:.64). A. Elements which impinge upon the work of the enterprise and the national and local sources of demographic and epidemiological data 1. Effects of Environment on Enterprise Environmental changes can notably affect the functions of an enterprise. Such changes can also affect national as well as local sources of demographic and epidemiological data. As per reports, environment has been undergoing tremendous changes for the last few years mainly due to thoughtless human activities. These changes are likely to affect the way an organisation designs its operations since there is a strong link between environment and business. 2. Impacts of demographic trends on epidemiological environment There is a strong relationship between demography and epidemiology. Both these studies focus on an overall population rather than individuals. Hence, demographic trends and changes can have significant impacts on epidemiological environment on the health and social care. To illustrate, consider demographic determinants like birth rate, migration flow, or death rate. It is clear that a rise or fall in birth rate, migration flow, or death rate would alter the structure of a population. Since epidemiological studies increasingly focus on factors like birth, aging, and death, this type of demographic trend changes would greatly influence the outcomes of epidemiological studies. 3. Sources of demographic and epidemiological data Normally, local, national, and international bodies provide information about demography and epidemiology. Undoubtedly, census is the most important single source of demographic data and it is generally conducted by local governmental bodies. In addition to this, other primary sources of demographic data include migration reports, surveys, estimates, and various programme registrations. Surveys conducted by governmental and non-governmental bodies represent other potential source of demographic data. For instance, international bodies like World Health Organisation and UN possess extensive demographic database. UK National Publication Hub is one of the major sources of demographic data in the United Kingdom. 4. Key aspects of social environment Evidently, demographic and epidemiological study results may be notably influenced by various social environmental aspects including lifestyle, food habits, and political status. Many scholars opine that social environment is very likely to cause demographic variations through behavioural mechanisms. “One aspect of social environment, relative abundance to heterospecifics, influences the intensity of reproductive interference and its demographic effects.” (Hettyey and Pearman 2002). B. A whole new consumer healthcare segment is emerging Today, prevalence of diseases is very high due to some notable changes in lifestyle trends. The ‘fast-food’ habit has greatly contributed to an adverse shift in epidemiological distribution of an area. Reports indicate that the number of people with diseases like diabetes, heart attack, and osteoporosis is increasing day by day. For instance, studies (Hembert et al. 2012) show that changing demographics is more likely to increase the prevalence of chronic diseases. As discussed earlier, the correlation between demographic trends and epidemiological environment has far reaching impacts on healthcare and social life. For instance, notable demographic trend changes may compel epidemiologists to adopt new disease prevention tactics and other healthcare policies. Similarly, demographic and subsequent epidemiological variations may reshape almost all practices in social life. studies have proven that environment can have a great influence on a person’s health and therefore environmental changes may impact an area’s epidemiological distribution also. Often, adverse environmental changes (For instance; continuous heavy rain, storm, and thunder) may impede demographic and epidemiological survey programmes. Hence, the healthcare industry is striving to meet people’s growing healthcare needs. In order to meet this requirement, a whole new consumer healthcare segment is emerging between the mass market, supermarket-based world of consumer goods companies and scientific, pharmacy-based companies. Since the population with health risks grows, healthcare products are likely to move to the heart of the mass market. When health complications show an upward trend, the government cannot effectively manage its healthcare segments. In other words, public sector healthcare facilities may not be adequate to meet this drastically changing healthcare trend. In this situation, scientific or pharmacy based companies may not be able meet customer demands effectively even though they engage in large scale production and distribution activities. As a result, new market entrants may try to capitalise on this situation by developing new healthcare facilities or improved medicines. It is clear that customer demand is greatly related to the concept of mass market. It is a known fact that diverse customer demand is the fundamental factor contributing to the development of concepts like mass market or super market. The term mass market simply refers to largest consumer group for a specified industry product. When a customer needs to purchase several categories of products within minimum time, a super market would be the best option. As we mentioned earlier, population with health risk factors is growing and today a vast majority of the people (particularly 30 ages and above) have a combination of two or more diseases. Hence, they need to get different treatment facilities and quality medicines at fairly low costs. The concept of mass market would assist modern people to meet their health requirements effectively as the mass marketing strategy covers whole population for the particular industry product. Even though people today are more concerned about their health, they are not ready to spend much time on health maintenance due to their hectic scheduled life situations. Hence, modern people seek ways to improve their health status by spending less time and money. Under such circumstance, concepts like supermarkets or mass markets would better serve customer demand in accordance with customer expectations. This type of market settings takes advantages of various demographic and epidemiological data sources, because they better help supermarket facilities to easily identify current healthcare needs. Current trends indicate that the emerging mass market and supermarket cultures in healthcare industry are going to dominate the scientific or pharmacy based healthcare culture. In short, healthcare industry is most likely to move toward a mass market culture in the near future. References Edge, D. S. (2007) ‘Epidemiology, Demography, and Community Health’, in A. R. Vollman, E. T. Anderson and J. McFarlane (eds) Canadian Community As Partner: Theory & Multidisciplinary Practice, p. 49. London: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Hettyey, A and P. B. Pearman (2002) ‘Social Environment and Reproductive Interference Affect Reproductive Success in the Frog Rana Latastei’, Oxford Journals: Behavioral Ecology 14 (2): 249-300. Hembert, E., Anscombe, J and M. Thomas (2012) ‘Winning the battle for consumer healthcare’, AT Kearney. Accessed 30 May 2012 McKenzie, J. F., Pinger, R. R and J. E. Kotecki (2011) An Introduction to Community Health. USA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Read More