Overview: Now that you have solidified your study question and hypothesis, you will choose a study design for the final project and consider potential interventions. If you have any questions, be sure to post them to the General Questions forum. Because this is a draft of Section III of the final project, you will notice that the critical elements and the rubric are the same as the final project, but with slight differences. Tips for tackling each critical element are included below each element.
Prompt: Write a draft of Section III of the final project. Address the following critical elements in your short paper: III.
Epidemiology Study Design Proposal: In this section, you will choose an analytic epidemiological study design from those covered in this class, to be used to answer your research question and examine the hypothesis. Keep in mind this is not expected to be a complete research design, which would also include a sampling strategy, a measurement strategy, and statistical methods for the study.
a) Select the most appropriate analytic epidemiological study design to research your study question, explaining why you feel it is most appropriate. Tip: Refer back to Module Five's activity to answer this.
b) How will you use your selected study design to identify patterns, causes, and effects of health condition for the affected population of your study? Are there any limitations of the study design? Tip: Refer back to Module Five journal activity for your analysis of the strengths and weaknesses (or limitations) of each study design.
c) Select an appropriate measure of association (e.g., odds ratio, relative risk) based on your chosen analytic epidemiological study design. Why is this measure of association appropriate?
d) Determine potential interventions for solving the public health issue for the specified population and/or community based on the epidemiological practices you have used. Be sure to cite scientific resources that support your response. You are not expected to determine the solution for the identified issue, but instead, consider strategies that may help solve the issue based on your knowledge from this course. Tip: Look to the discussion for this week (Module Six) to help inform your answer here. How would your epidemiological study inform potential interventions? Think about the different levels (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary).