Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply epidemiology to a public health problem or issue. This assignment addresses all three of your course learning objectives and will help you synthesize what you’ve learned in this class.

Directions

Choose a public health-related state or event that interests you. The problem can be a disease, injury, or other health-related behavior. The primary requirement for choosing your problem is that it needs to have current epidemiological research conducted (current is defined as within the past ten years, preferably in the past five years). This includes both descriptive and analytic studies.

Components of the paper are as follows (be sure to use headings in your paper):

  • Background and operational definition(5 points):
    • Describe the problem you are addressing, including an operational definition. This may be a formal definition that exists within the public health field, or in the absence of a formal definition, it may be your own. For example, if the problem is a disease like diabetes, what are the clinical criteria that determine whether a person has the disease? If the problem is a behavior like smoking, what constitutes whether someone is a smoker (i.e., smoke daily, smoke a pack a day, or smoke a certain number of cigarettes per day)? Do all of the research studies use the same definition of the problem? The reader needs a clear understanding of the problem you are presenting. If there are controversies within the field regarding definitions, include this here. This background and definition should be 1-2 paragraphs.
  • Descriptive epidemiology(15 points):
    • What is the current state of the problem with respect to person, place, and time? All three of these descriptors need to be included. Provide information that gives the rate of occurrence of this problem, citing appropriate sources. Critique the sources of information—what are the strengths and weaknesses of these sources?
  • Analytic epidemiology (20 points):

Review 5-10 (minimum of five, maximum of ten) analytic epidemiological studies that address this problem. These must be primary epidemiological studies from the past 5-10 years; not review articles or meta-analyses. Use the table below to