For this assignment, you will be completing the Introduction, Epidemiological Assessment, Social Assessment, and Behavior and Environment assessment portions of your final paper. Please see the Final Paper Overview page for more details.
Using Microsoft Word, write a research paper of approximately 4 pages that addresses the following segments of the paper:
Introduction:
- Provide a brief overview of the public health significance of the issue your plan addresses, and why it is important to intervene within the population and setting that you have chosen.
- Briefly describe what the plan will accomplish and how it is organized.
Epidemiological Assessment:
- Define your public health issue and describe the positive and/or negative health outcomes related to this issue. If your issue is a health outcome (e.g., Type 2 Diabetes), describe the other positive and negative health outcomes associated with it. If you are focusing on a health-related behavior (e.g. breastfeeding, vaping), describe the health outcomes associated with the behavior.
- Provide information regarding the distribution of your public health issue/behavior and related health outcomes by age, sex, ethnicity, location, and other variables you deem important. Use appropriate epidemiological data and statistics to provide a strong rationale for focusing on a specific population (e.g., versus other groups), geographic area, etc., or for focusing on a universal or non-specified population.
- Include at least one goal and one objective for your targeted health outcome(s). If appropriate, provide a rationale for the goal(s) and objective(s). Make sure that the goals and objectives for each outcome are linked
- Identify indicators related to the targeted health outcome(s) that can be used in the baseline assessment and for evaluation. Identify the secondary data that you may be using and when you will access and collect it.
Social Assessment:
- Describe the socio-demographic characteristics of your priority population and setting.
- Identify the social and economic and other quality of life issues, as well as values, assets, and capacity in your population.
- Explain how you will engage project stakeholders as active partners in the planning, assessment, implementation, and evaluation processes.
- Describe what information is missing and include a plan to collect secondary data to address these identified gaps.
Behavior and Environment Assessment:
- Identify and create an inventory of behavioral and environmental (physical and social) determinants (factors that are associated with, influence, or cause) your targeted health outcomes or behavior specified in the introduction.
- Assess the importance and changeability of each behavioral and environmental determinant. You may also include other prioritization criteria (e.g., increasing trends; disparities).
- Prioritize behavioral and environmental determinants that you have identified. Provide a clear rationale for why you prioritized as you did, using empirical data, theory and/or evidence from the literature, etc., as well as a description of your prioritization process. You may want to prioritize the behavioral and environmental determinants separately, together, or using an iterative process.
Submission Format
Your paper should be double-spaced and include a centered title. Any sources used should be properly cited in APA format.