BACKGROUND:
When faced with a problem, our immediate instinct is usually to respond with a solution. In some cases, this can be beneficial, but in the field of Public Health we have learned that implementing solutions without taking the time to fully understand a problem can be a disservice to the communities we aim to help.
With that in mind your goal for this assignment is to establish a deep understanding a population health problem you’ve chosen to focus on throughout the semester. By the end of this assignment, you should be able to discuss multiple aspects of your population health topic, like the underlying and contributing factors, populations who are at a higher risk for it, the population-level consequences, and more.
Remember that health disparities & inequities are unfair, unjust, and unnecessary/avoidable.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Pick your population health topic.
Use the links on the “Population Health Resources” page in Canvas to find and report the information requested
For your final paper, you will be expected to translate these findings into meaningful language. But right now, focus on locating relevant information to paint a comprehensive picture of your topic.
Do not forget to clearly indicate which source you used to find each component of the data you compile.
DETAILS/QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
DEFINE THE PROBLEM:
What is the problem/your population health topic?
Generally, why does the problem exist? Root causes or drivers?
How do you measure the problem? What is the “health outcome” or “health indicator?”
What is the current state? Both nationally and locally:
How many people are affected by it?
Who is affected by it?
Generally, what are the consequences of the problem? If left unaddressed, what would happen?
Individual-level
Population-level
DISCUSS & DETAIL THE DISPARITY:
Among what population do you observe a disparity?
How are you “drawing lines” around your population?
What are the characteristics of the population? What does it look like? Who lives there? Demographics?
How significant is the disparity?
Identify the populations you are comparing
Quantify the difference between your population and other population
EXPLORE THE INEQUITIES:
Specific to your disparity, what are the underlying inequities?
How are they measured?
How are the resources/opportunities/access distributed?
Are these inequities unique to your population? Where else can they be seen?
Which inequity seems to be the most significant? Why?
Pick any health topic.
