public health issue
Order Description
Length: 2,200 words Requirements: Choose a public health issue, a population and a population group of personal interest. You will be required to choose: 1. A specific communicable disease, non-communicable disease or injury 2. One of the following populations: ? Australia ? Another country or global region 3. A population group identified at higher risk of that disease or injury, for example: ? Indigenous people ? Refugees and/or internally displaced persons ? Migrants ? Men ? Women ? Infants and/or children ? Adolescents and/or young adults ? Seniors (i.e. older adults and elderly people) ? Commercial sex workers ? Injecting drug users ? Prisoners ? People in a particular geographical location (e.g. rural, remote, urban slums)
It is Curtin policy that assignment work previously submitted in part or total for another unit will not be accepted as credit for this unit. It is essential, therefore, that you do not chose the same topic as any assignment that you have completed, or will complete this semester, for other units such as Concepts in Health Promotion Planning. If the topic is similar you must ensure that no parts of your assignments are copied word-for-word from one to another. The purpose of this assignment is for you to investigate the major environmental and/or social determinants of health which contribute to the high prevalence/incidence of your chosen public health issue (communicable disease, non-communicable disease or injury), in a particular at-risk group within your chosen population. Discuss any health risk factors and health behaviour/s involved. Link these risk factors and behaviours to the environmental and social determinants that you have identified. You may need to start with identifying the risk factors and behaviours and then finding which environmental and social determinant impact on them. Draw a conclusion as to which determinants contribute the most to developing and maintaining the public health issue that you have chosen.
2
Take care not to choose a population and issue for which the public health intervention is so effective that no current determinants can be discussed e.g. a communicable disease in a population that has an almost 100% effective, universal vaccine cover for that particular disease. You are able to mention biological determinants (e.g. genetics, age) as contributing factors which interact with the environmental or social determinants – but you are unable to explore them in depth. You are required to present information presented in the published literature. It can be very frustrating – particularly if you have vast clinical experience working with your chosen population group – but you cannot write down information that you personally know or that practitioners working in the area are all aware of. It is important for you to spend time exploring the published literature and draw your conclusions from evidence presented in literature that we can all access. You are required to locate, select and clearly present relevant information from a range of current peer-reviewed and reputable sources – journal articles, books and reports from reputable university/government/international organisations. Find the most current information on that issue that you can. Ensure that you are not basing your argument on information that was later disproven or moderated after further research. Most of your references would thus be published within the last 10 years. It is possible for you to cite older information if you find early studies that were never repeated once a fundamental idea was proven or original publications of theoretical or conceptual models that form the basis of current public health practice. It is expected that you will source your information from at least 15 appropriate sources. Take care not to overuse websites (use no more than 4) and to only use academically credible websites. (Note that, if you have downloaded a report as a PDF document from a reputable website, for example WHO or AIHW, it counts as a report rather than a website. Write the URL in the reference in the reference list, though!).
Note: while you are searching the literature in your chosen area, note or save any mention of successful public health interventions that you might find. You may use these references in Assessment 2.
You are expected to: introduce the issue; develop a thesis (main idea or position taken on the issue) by presenting relevant information in a clear and organised manner; cite and reference evidence to support your comments; and draw a logical conclusion.
Please summarize and present information in prose. DO NOT include any graphs, tables or flowcharts.
Present your paper in accordance with the requirements described in Faculty of Health Science assignment presentation guide. You are expected to follow the guidelines on the writing style required by the guide and to write using appropriate, non-discriminatory language. Submit your paper with a title page with declaration, contents page, numbered headings and subheadings and a reference page.
Note that the 2,200 word count is NOT to include the title page, contents page, or reference page but the word count DOES include in-text referencing (i.e. author-date citations).
If you have any questions after reading the relevant sections of the Guide to Assignment Presentation, please ask your tutor. Time will be set aside in class to discuss assignment requirements and this will be recorded for external online students. Marking criteria and feedback guide: You will be marked on the following criteria: development of your thesis (main idea); content knowledge; development of ideas; logical organisation; and use of information sources. Marks will be removed for poor citation, referencing and written style. Carefully read the feedback guide for this assignment under ‘Assessments’ in Blackboard to ensure that you have met all the required criteria before submitting your assignment.