*** There is a Draft in the attatched to use to creat the Final draft**
Final Project: Details and Instructions
This project will allow you to apply the key principles, practices, and concepts to examine health and well-being in a California county of your choice. Counties must be approved by the course instructor. This project will use the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) County Health Rankings (https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/what-impacts-health/county-health-rankings-model) as a primary resource.
This project includes 3 components:
Using the definition of public healthfrom the course text, students will describe the general population characteristics of the residents of a California County, their health status, and identify the most critical public health problems.
Using the definition of health factorsfrom the RWJF County Health Rankings ( https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/health-data/health-factors), students will identify and describe the health factors that may be contributing to the public health problems they identify in component 1.
Based on the findings from components 1 and 2, students will use a variety of appropriate sources, to propose public health solutions or actions that could be taken by your County’s Public Health Department to address the public health problems.
The paper must be a Microsoft Word document, submitted via the assignment link on Canvas.
The seven-page final paper should be in 11 or 12 pt standard font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins on numbered pages and include the following sections:
Introduction. A general overview of your County.
Socio-demographic profile of the County. Include information typically found in articles
and papers that describe a geographic area (conduct your inquiries/research to
determine these).
Health status of the County residents
Health factors contributing to health status
Recommendations for public health interventions to improve health.These should include multiple levels of analysis into the factors that account for the health outcomes you identify. You will need to present solutions to address both proximal to distal root causes of the health outcomes you identify.
Reference List (not included in page count)This should be a complete reference list for all the resources you reference in your paper. References should be in APA 7th edition format.
Submit a Word document via the assignment link on Canvas. No other formats will be graded. The page minimum for the final paper is 7 pages. The final draft should be in 11 or 12 pt standard font, double spaced, with 1-inch margins on numbered pages.
Your final draft must include the following sections:
Introduction. Provide a general overview of your county. Include information typically found in articles and papers that describe a geographic area (conduct your inquiries/research to determine these). Give the reader a sense of the place you are writing about and the factors that may shape the health of the residents.
Socio-demographic profile of the County. Use data from the US Census website to describe the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the residents of your County. Compare these to rates taken from the State of California and draw conclusions based on these comparisons. Use both narrative and charts and graphs to describe the residents of the county. You must include the following categories and are encouraged to use others that may influence health in your county (e.g. employment, population density, etc.):
Education
Income
Poverty
Race and Hispanic Origin
Age distribution
Health status of the County residents. Using the definition of population health and public healthfrom the course text, use data from the County Health Rankings (Overall Rankings in Health Outcomes) and other sources to describe the health status of residents of your selected County. Use both narrative and charts and graphs to describe the health status of residents in your county. You must include these health outcomes and are encouraged to include others that best describe health in your county:
Premature age-adjusted mortality
Poor mental health days
Select at least one other health outcome to include in your analysis
4. Health factors contributing to health status. Using the definition of health factors from the County Health Rankings website (Overall Rankings in Health Factors), identify and described the health factors that may be contributing to the health status you describe above. Use both narrative and charts and graphs to illustrate how the health factors contribute to health status of residents in your county.
5. Recommendations for public health interventions to improve health.Using any variety of appropriate sources, based on the findings from the above, in your group’s/your opinion what public health efforts are called for by your County’s Public Health Department to address the unwanted health outcomes you’ve identified? Your recommendations should include multiple levels of analysis into the factors that account for the health outcomes you identify. You will need to present solutions to address both proximal to distal root causes of the health outcomes you identify.
6. Reference List (not included in page count) This should be a complete reference list for all the resources you reference in your paper. References should be in APA 7th edition format.
Important notes
Cite: If you state a fact or make an assertion anywhere in the paper, cite the source and include a full description of the source on the works cited or reference page.
Describe: Be mindful to accurately describe all health indicators used.
Tables and figures (graphics such as pie charts, bar charts, etc.): must beused to describe information succinctly. Use these whenever you can.
Benchmarking: Compare information, numbers, and rates with benchmarks (e.g. county rate compared to the state rate) to describe the severity of any indicator. Be sure to make comparisons that make sense. For example, if you compare the population total of your County to the state of CA, it is a meaningless comparison. However, if you compare the percentage of Caucasians that live in your county count to the percentage that live in CA, it is a meaningful comparison.
Quality of Analysis: The quality of your critical thinking/analysis will emerge from the quality of your research. If you do not apply appropriate research skills into the project, this will be reflected in your recommendations. Remember the “garbage in-garbage” out rule here: poor research/inquiry will lead to poor, inappropriate, misguided recommendations for public health interventions.
