I’m working on a english writing question and need an explanation to help me study.

Discussion Two- Looking for Patterns in Public Health. Distribution and Determinants

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Read this and/or watch my mini-lecture on the topic. Its the same information provided 2 ways!..Enjoy

Part or public health is defining patterns and problems in health. That is the subset of public health called epidemiolgy. Here is a great definition of epidemiology from the CDC 1.

“By definition, epidemiology is the study (scientific, systematic, and data-driven) of the distribution (frequency, pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events (not just diseases) in specified populations (neighborhood, school, city, state, country, global). It is also the application of this study to the control of health problems (Source: Principles of Epidemiology, 3rd Edition (Links to an external site.)).

This lesson focuses on Distribution (where) and Determinants (why). We can use these simple strategies to discover about the health of our communities. First watch this great TED talk on Cholera in London. It is surprisingly entertaining for such a serious subject.

(Links to an external site.)http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_tours_the_ghost_map

Then watch this (5 min). This speaker mapped twitter comments by subject and overlapped it on city maps. Its not exactly health mapping, it is behavioral information. Sometimes determinants can be behaviors, environmental factors or social concerns that impact health. In this map, you can see where in the city are people tweeting about what topics. It maps/tracks areas and topics so it correlates where people live and what they believe. As we’ve seen with Covid, beliefs impact behaviors and health and he takes it a step further to see divides and links in our communities based on interests.

https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_troy_social_maps_that_reveal_a_city_s_intersections_and_separations#t-37903 (Links to an external site.)

A big part of studying health is to be able to look at patterns or DISTRIBUTIONS. We need to describe the pattern and what may contribute to it, also known as a DETERMINANT before we design an intervention.

We also need to look at one factor at a time because too many variables confuses the outcome.

ASSIGNMENT: Describe a way to track a factor (determinant) to discover a patterns/relationships (distribution). The contributor could be the environment, a behavior, a belief or even a community factor.

Do not describe someone else’s study or a historical problem, think of your own. For example don’t say you want to look at smokers and lung cancer.

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES

For an environmental factor example, you could pick smog (environment) and asthma rates of admission.

Problem: asthma Determinant: smog Distribution Map: map out air quality with asthma hospital admissions in different counties

For a community factor, I recall studying mapping the lack of grocery stores in poor neighborhoods contributing to health outcomes due to lack of access to vegetables.

Problem: obesity in lower socioeconomic groups Determinant: lack of fresh fruit/veggies Distribution Map: map out grocery vs convenience stores in areas with high and low home values to see if lack of access to fresh produce may contribute to obesity

You can even pick something positive!

Problem suicide rate Determinant community support Distribution Map: map out the number of worship houses in an area and compare it to the suicide rate reported in those areas..

Don’t think too hard! Use those reasons you are taking a class in public health and pick something that interests you!

EVERY reply should have:

ONE problem with background or a reference,

ONE contributing factor aka Determinant aka the WHY

ONE way to map/study the relationship aka the Distribution aka the WHERE

Please don’t do a huge overview of the problem. DO NOT just review someone else’s study. Find a problem YOU find interesting. Think of something YOU think might be a factor that contributes to it. Then link it up. Intervention strategies are not needed. Need more ideas?? Map Examples Chart download

Refer to the grading rubric!!!! Grading Rubric for Discussions.docx download

For this one-

5pts for problem-Do just one or two sentences to show a problem exists. A large problem overview is not important to this assignment. Keep it brief.

10pts for the determinant and rationale how it relates to the problem-Describe how you relate a factor to the problem you chose. Tell me why they relate.

10 points for describing relationship & way to map/study the distibution-Describe how you would explore the problem and its contributor by looking at a pattern. This is the important part. Do not brush over it.

3 pts for reply/comment to a peer

2 pts for reference (in the text and at the end) The reference should be for showing us what the problem is. ie suicide rates, obesity rates, drop out rates etc

1.CDC teacher roadmaps Epidemiology (Links to an external site.)

Requirements: