9. CPH Domain 5: Chronic Disease, Mental Health, and Injury
After this lesson you can
- Separate modifiable from non-modifiable risk factors for chronic disease
- Contrast Rose's population strategy with the high-risk strategy
- Sort programs into universal, selective and indicated prevention on the IOM continuum
- Recognize SBIRT and harm reduction as evidence-based public health approaches
- Fill a Haddon matrix and tell active from passive countermeasures
- Match surveillance needs to BRFSS, NSDUH, YRBSS, FARS, NEISS and NVDRS
Video coming soon
Scheduled for release on November 24, 2026.
The second Domain 5 lesson, covering tasks 3, 5 and 6: chronic disease, mental health and substance use disorders, and unintentional and intentional injury. It teaches the risk and protective factors, prevention frameworks and surveillance systems the exam names, anchored by a Harbor County ranking in which overdose, motor vehicle crashes and suicide lead years of potential life lost.
Questions and answers
Questions a learner would ask about this lesson. Think through your own answer before you open each one.
- What makes a disease chronic?
Show answer
The lesson uses the CDC definition: conditions that last one year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living, or both. Chronic diseases have long duration, slow progression, multiple causes and a long latency between exposure and disease, and they are usually not cured. CDC frames tobacco use, poor nutrition, physical inactivity and excessive alcohol use as the key risk behaviors behind them.
- How do universal, selective and indicated prevention differ?
Show answer
They differ by who is served, not by what is delivered. Universal prevention reaches the whole population regardless of risk. Selective prevention reaches subgroups at elevated risk, and indicated prevention reaches individuals who show early signs but have no diagnosis. These sit in the prevention band of the Institute of Medicine continuum, between promotion and treatment.
- Is harm reduction a wrong answer on the exam because it does not require abstinence?
Show answer
No. The lesson lists "harm reduction is evidence-based, not the wrong answer" as an exam trap. Harm reduction reduces the harms of substance use without requiring abstinence first. Naloxone distribution reverses opioid overdose, and syringe services programs reduce HIV and hepatitis C transmission and link people to treatment.
- How is the Haddon matrix built?
Show answer
William Haddon's 1970 matrix has three phases as rows, pre-event, event and post-event, and four factors as columns: host, agent or vehicle, physical environment and social environment. That gives twelve cells, and each cell is a place an intervention can act. It is not the same thing as primary, secondary and tertiary prevention.
- Why do passive countermeasures beat active ones?
Show answer
Active countermeasures, such as buckling a seat belt or wearing a helmet, require the person to act every single time. Passive countermeasures, such as airbags, automatic sprinklers, child-resistant packaging and road design, protect automatically with no action required. Because they do not depend on memory or motivation, passive countermeasures reach everyone.
Practice quiz
- Question 1Which risk factor for chronic disease is non-modifiable?
- Question 2A support group offered only to children whose parents are in treatment is which type of prevention on the IOM continuum?
- Question 3Person A shows early symptoms of depression but has no diagnosis and is offered brief counseling. On the IOM continuum this is:
- Question 4In the Haddon matrix for a motor vehicle crash, speed limits and licensing laws fall in which cell?
- Question 5How many cells does the Haddon matrix have?
- Question 6Which of these is a passive countermeasure?
- Question 7A county analyst needs data on every fatal crash on a public road. Which system fits?
- Question 8A tobacco tax that shifts smoking across the whole county a small amount reflects which of Rose's strategies?
- Question 9Earlier detection by screening lengthens measured survival without delaying death. This is:
- Question 10In the CDC four-step public health approach to injury, what is step 3?
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CPH Exam Pathway is an independent course produced by Subthesis for educational purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE), and completing it does not confer certification. Confirm fees, eligibility, and exam rules against the current NBPHE candidate handbook.