Effective public health programs address myriad social and behavioral risk factors that may contribute to a higher likelihood for disease for a specific population.
As a public health practitioner one of your job functions may be to assess the social and behavioral risk factors of your target population and implement a public health program that considers those unique characteristics. It is necessary to evaluate the measures (if any) the public health community has taken to address the public health issue, and analyze the successes and failures of each approach. Having this background data will allow you to effectively develop and implement a program that addresses the public health issue.
For your final project, you will write an analysis paper. Just like practicing professionals, the first step for you to take is to choose a public health issue and provide some background on the issue and why you chose it-this is your task in Milestone One.
Prompt: Write a short paper that describes a public health issue and the public health programs that have been implemented to address this specific issue.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
- Describe the public health issue, including the affected population, and the social and behavioral risk factors that are associated with the issue
- Delineate between social and behavioral risk factors that contribute to disease, and diseases that contribute to social and behavioral risk factors
- Describe the public health programs implemented to address this issue, and determine how these programs addressed the social and behavioral risk factors associated with the disease
- Determine the successes and failures of these programs, and clearly explain why you have determined them successes and failures
- Select a program that you will examine for your final project, and provide the rationale for your choice
- Substantiate your work with data and references from peer-reviewed academic journals
Guidelines for Submission: Your paper should be 3 pages in length. It should be double-spaced and formatted with 12-point Times New Roman font and oneinch margins. At least three sources from peer-reviewed academic journals must be cited in APA format.