Project Assignment Guidelines
Overview
Epidemiology is the science that allows public health practitioners to study the patterns, causes, and effects of health conditions in defined populations. Publichealth practitioners rely on epidemiology to understand the risks and protective factors associated with health conditions, and to identify health disparities and specific populations at risk for disease. Studies in epidemiology inform the development of public health policy and targeted interventions to prevent disease and reduce health disparities.
For your project, you will complete an epidemiological research study report based on the provided research study, "Salmonella in the Caribbean."
Epidemiologists in the field are often tasked with developing recommendations to address specific health issues, and part of that process is analyzing what other communities and epidemiologists have already done to address the issues. In your epidemiological research study report, you will analyze a health issue, the population impacted, and the prevention strategies used. You will then develop a research question and determine an appropriate research design to further investigate the issue.
The project is divided into two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Four and Five. The product will be submitted in Module Seven.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
01: Draw connections between health disparities within specific populations and social and behavioral determinants
02: Determine key epidemiological principles of disease by analyzing health research studies
03: Determine patterns and trends of disease causation in specific populations by analyzing health data
04: Differentiate between primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies for how they address key factors impacting health issues of specific populations
05: Select epidemiological research designs to investigate disease and improve the quality of health for specific populations
Prompt
For your project, you will develop an epidemiological research study report on the provided research study, "Salmonella in the Caribbean," which investigates a public health issue impacting a specific population. In your project, you will analyze the population impacted by the public health issue to accomplish the following:
Make connections between social and behavioral determinants and disparities.
Analyze the health issue to determine key epidemiologic principles and identify patterns and trends.
Examine the levels of prevention used in the research study.
For the conclusion to your research study report, you will develop a research question to further investigate the public health issue and population, and to determine an appropriate research design to investigate the research question.
Specifically, you must address the critical elements listed below. Most of the critical elements align with a particular course outcome (shown in brackets).
I. Population: In this section of your report, you will summarize key elements of the research study and analyze the population impacted by the health issue.
A. Summarize the people, places, and times represented in the research study to provide context for your report.
B. Describe three social and behavioral determinants strongly associated with the public health issue in the research study. Be sure to cite
specific examples from the research study to support your description.
C. Describe three known disparities associated with the health of the specific population. Be sure to cite specific examples from the
research study to support your description.
D. Explain how the identified social and behavioral determinants relate to the disparities you identified, and explain your reasoning.
II. Health Issue: In this section of your project, you will analyze the health issue in focus in the research study. You will draw conclusions about the health issue through your review of the research study and by conducting outside research on the topic.
A. Describe the risk factors associated with the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and
your independent research.
B. Describe the mode of transmission of the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and your
independent research.
C. Determine the incidence and prevalence of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations.
D. Determine themortality rate of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations.
E. Interpret the odds ratio to determine the strength of association between the potential sources of exposure and the disease.
F. Using your research and analysis, draw connections between the population and public health issue. Consider where you identified common elements, what you learned about the public health issue by studying the population, and what you learned about the population by studying the public health issue.
III. Levels of Prevention: In this section, you will describe the prevention strategies used by the epidemiologists in the research study. You will identify a strategy for each level of prevention and differentiate between the strategies.
A. Describe a primary prevention strategy represented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the
health issue of the specific population.
B. Describe a secondary prevention strategy represented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the health issue of the specific population.
C. Describe a tertiary prevention strategyrepresented in the research study, and explain how it addresses key factors impacting the health
issue of the specific population.
D. Explain how the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies differ in how they address the key factors impacting the health issue in the research study.
IV. Conclusion: Now that you have analyzed the research study, you will develop a research question to further investigate the specific health issue and population, select an appropriate research design, and explain the importance of the research to the field of public health.
A. Using your analysis of the research study, develop a research question to further investigate the specific public health issue and
impacted population.
B. Determine whether an observational or experimental research design would be more appropriate to investigate your research question. Be
sure to justify your determination.
C. Explain the importance of further research for improving the quality of health in the specific population. What is the potential benefit?
Milestones
Milestone One : Health Issue
In Module Three, you will analyze the health issue in focus in the provided research study. You will draw conclusions about the health issue through your review of the research study and by conducting outside research on the topic.
Milestone Two : Population
In Module Five, you will summarize the key elements of the research study and analyze the population impacted by the health issue.
Submission : Epidemiological Research Study Analysis
In Module Seven, you will submit your project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course.