Epidemiology is the science that allows public health practitioners to study the patterns, causes, and effects of health conditions in defined populations. Public
health practitioners rely on epidemiology to understand the risks and protective factors associated with health conditions, and to identify health disparities and
specific populations at risk for disease. Studies in epidemiology inform the development of public health policy and targeted interventions to prevent disease
and reduce health disparities.
For your final project, you will complete an epidemiological research study report based on the provided research study, “Salmonella in the Caribbean.”
Epidemiologists in the field are often tasked with developing recommendations to address specific health issues, and part of that process is analyzing what other
communities and epidemiologists have already done to address the issues. In your epidemiological research study report, you will analyze a health issue, the
population impacted, and the prevention strategies used. You will then develop a research question and determine an appropriate research design to further
investigate the issue.
The final project is divided into two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality
final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Four and Five. The final product will be submitted in Module Seven.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
IHP-330-01: Draw connections between health disparities within specific populations and social and behavioral determinants
IHP-330-02: Determine key epidemiological principles of disease by analyzing health research studies
IHP-330-03: Determine patterns and trends of disease causation in specific populations by analyzing health data
IHP-330-04: Differentiate between primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies for how they address key factors impacting health issues of
specific populations
IHP-330-05: Select epidemiological research designs to investigate disease and improve the quality of health for specific populations
Prompt
For your final project, you will develop an epidemiological research study report on the provided research study, “Salmonella in the Caribbean,” which
investigates a public health issue impacting a specific population. In your project, you will analyze the population impacted by the public health issue to
accomplish the following:
Make connections between social and behavioral determinants and disparities.
Analyze the health issue to determine key epidemiologic principles and identify patterns and trends.
Examine the levels of prevention used in the research study.
For the conclusion to your research study report, you will develop a research question to further investigate the public health issue and population, and to
determine an appropriate research design to investigate the research question.
Specifically, you must address the critical elements listed below. Most of the critical elements align with a particular course outcome (shown in brackets).
I. Population: In this section of your report, you will summarize key elements of the research study and analyze the population impacted by the health
issue.
A. Summarize the people, places, and times represented in the research study to provide context for your report.
B. Describe three social and behavioral determinants strongly associated with the public health issue in the research study. Be sure to cite
specific examples from the research study to support your description.
C. Describe three known disparities associated with the health of the specific population. Be sure to cite specific examples from the
research study to support your description.
D. Explain how the identified social and behavioral determinants relate to the disparities you identified, and explain your reasoning.
II. Health Issue: In this section of your final project, you will analyze the health issue in focus in the research study. You will draw conclusions about the
health issue through your review of the research study and by conducting outside research on the topic.
A. Describe the risk factors associated with the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and
your independent research.
B. Describe the mode of transmission of the public health issue. Support your description with evidence from the research study and your
independent research.
C. Determine the incidence and prevalence of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations.
D. Determine the mortality rate of the health issue using the data from the research study to perform the appropriate calculations.
E. Interpret the odds ratio to determine the strength of association between the potential sources of exposure and the disease.
F. Using your research and analysis, draw connections between the population and public health issue. Consider where you identified common
elements, what you learned about the public health issue by studying the population, and what you learned about the population by
studying the public health issue.