Heart disease mortality in Virginia among adults (35+) and hypothesis about the pattern of heart disease deaths.
- Describe heart disease mortality in Virginia among adults (35+) in terms of person, place, and time using the CDC’s Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke (https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/maps/atlas/index.htm), and
- Post one hypothesis about the pattern of heart disease deaths in Virginia.
Specifically, every student’s initial post should include text that:
- Describes “the story” of heart disease deaths for the population of interest over time in 2-3 sentences,
- Describes “the story” of heart disease deaths according to one key dimension of person (e.g. age, biological sex, race, health, etc.) in 2-3 sentences,
- Describes “the story” of heart disease deaths according to one key dimension of place (e.g. urban vs. rural, area poverty, region, health care access, etc.) in 2-3 sentences, and
- Presents one hypothesis about one factor you think could explain the heart disease death patterns you observed.
In constructing their initial posts students are encouraged to include visual aids (e.g. maps, graphs, etc.) that support or enhance their text descriptions. Students are also welcome to supplement their discussion with data from other sources, but it is not required. Two potentially useful resources Dr. Mittler recommends are:
- Virginia’s Department of Health Data Portal (https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/data/)
County Health Rankings and Resources — Virginia (https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/explore-health-rankings/use-data/go-beyond-the-snapshot/find-more-data/virginia-state-resources)