Assignment Description:
Write a scholarly paper in which you apply the concepts of epidemiology and nursing research to a communicable disease. Choose one communicable disease.
Epidemiology Paper Requirements
Include the following in your assignment:
1. A thorough description of the disease including causes, mode of transmission, symptoms, treatment and complications. Discuss the demographic most affected-incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality.
2. What are the determinants of health affecting this disease? https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-measures/Determinants-of-Health. – See article content below.
3. Identify the epidemiologic triad including host, agent and environmental factors as related to this disease.
4. Discuss the role of the public health nurse in relation to this disease. How is the public health nurse involved in finding, reporting, collection and analysis of data and follow up?
A minimum of three references is required. The written essay should be at least 1250 words in length.
APA7th edition format is required.
Reading Assignment Article:
Determinants of Health
• What makes some people healthy and others unhealthy?
• How can we create a society in which everyone has a chance to live a long, healthy life?
Healthy People 2020 is exploring these questions by:
• Developing objectives that address the relationship between health status and biology, individual behavior, health services, social factors, and policies.
• Emphasizing an ecological approach to disease prevention and health promotion. An ecological approach focuses on both individual-level and population-level determinants of health and interventions.
About Determinants of Health
The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status are known as determinants of health.
Determinants of health fall under several broad categories:
• Policymaking
• Social factors
• Health services
• Individual behavior
• Biology and genetics
It is the interrelationships among these factors that determine individual and population health. Because of this, interventions that target multiple determinants of health are most likely to be effective. Determinants of health reach beyond the boundaries of traditional health care and public health sectors; sectors such as education, housing, transportation, agriculture, and environment can be important allies in improving population health. The health of an individual and a group depends on how these factors interact with each other. Because of this, interventions that try to change more than one thing that affects health are most likely to work. Health is determined by more than just health care and public health. Education, housing, transportation, agriculture, and the environment can all be important allies in improving the health of a population.
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Policymaking
Policies at the local, state, and federal level affect individual and population health. Increasing taxes on tobacco sales, for example, can improve population health by reducing the number of people using tobacco products.
Some policies affect entire populations over extended periods of time while simultaneously helping to change individual behavior. For example, the 1966 Highway Safety Act and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act authorized the Federal Government to set and regulate standards for motor vehicles and highways. This led to an increase in safety standards for cars, including seat belts, which in turn reduced rates of injuries and deaths from motor vehicle accidents.1
Social Factors
Social determinants of health reflect the social factors and physical conditions of the environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work, and age. Also known as social and physical determinants of health, they impact a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes.
Don’t miss the Social Determinants of Health topic area and objectives.
Examples of social determinants include:
• Availability of resources to meet daily needs, such as educational and job opportunities, living wages, or healthful foods
• Social norms and attitudes, such as discrimination
• Exposure to crime, violence, and social disorder, such as the presence of trash
• Social support and social interactions
• Exposure to mass media and emerging technologies, such as the Internet or cell phones
• Socioeconomic conditions, such as concentrated poverty
• Quality schools
• Transportation options
• Public safety
• Residential segregation
Examples of physical determinants include:
• Natural environment, such as plants, weather, or climate change
• Built environment, such as buildings or transportation
• Worksites, schools, and recreational settings
• Housing, homes, and neighborhoods
• Exposure to toxic substances and other physical hazards
• Physical barriers, especially for people with disabilities
• Aesthetic elements, such as good lighting, trees, or benches
Poor health outcomes are often made worse by the interaction between individuals and their social and physical environment.
For example, millions of people in the United States live in places that have unhealthy levels of ozone or other air pollutants. In counties where ozone pollution is high, there is often a higher prevalence of asthma in both adults and children compared with state and national averages. Poor air quality can worsen asthma symptoms, especially in children.2
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Health Services
Both access to health services and the quality of health services can impact health. Healthy People 2020 directly addresses access to health services as a topic area and incorporates quality of health services throughout a number of topic areas.
Lack of access, or limited access, to health services greatly impacts an individual’s health status. For example, when individuals do not have health insurance, they are less likely to participate in preventive care and are more likely to delay medical treatment.3
Don’t miss the Access to Health Services topic area and objectives.
Barriers to accessing health services include:
• Lack of availability
• High cost
• Lack of insurance coverage
• Limited language access
These barriers to accessing health services lead to:
• Unmet health needs
• Delays in receiving appropriate care
• Inability to get preventive services
• Hospitalizations that could have been prevented
Individual Behavior
Individual behavior also plays a role in health outcomes. For example, if an individual quits smoking, his or her risk of developing heart disease is greatly reduced.
Many public health and health care interventions focus on changing individual behaviors such as substance abuse, diet, and physical activity. Positive changes in individual behavior can reduce the rates of chronic disease in this country.
Examples of individual behavior determinants of health include:
• Diet
• Physical activity
• Alcohol, cigarette, and other drug use
• Hand washing
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Biology and Genetics
Some biological and genetic factors affect specific populations more than others. For example, older adults are biologically prone to being in poorer health than adolescents due to the physical and cognitive effects of aging.
Sickle cell disease is a common example of a genetic determinant of health. Sickle cell is a condition that people inherit when both parents carry the gene for sickle cell. The gene is most common in people with ancestors from West African countries, Mediterranean countries, South or Central American countries, Caribbean islands, India, and Saudi Arabia.
Examples of biological and genetic social determinants of health include:
• Age
• Sex
• HIV status
• Inherited conditions, such as sickle-cell anemia, hemophilia, and cystic fibrosis
• Carrying the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, which increases risk for breast and ovarian cancer
• Family history of heart disease
Leading Health Indicators
Healthy People 2020 provides a comprehensive set of 10-year, national goals and objectives for improving the health of all Americans. Healthy People 2020 contains 42 topic areas with more than 1,200 objectives. A smaller set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, called Leading Health Indicators (LHIs), have been selected to communicate high-priority health issues and actions that can be taken to address them.
Great strides have been made during the past decade: life expectancy at birth increased; rates of death from coronary heart disease and stroke decreased. Nonetheless, public health challenges remain, and significant health disparities persist.
Track Progress Toward LHIs!
Check out our interactive infographic to see the Nation’s progress toward each Leading Health Indicator.
The Healthy People 2020 LHIs place renewed emphasis on overcoming these challenges as we track progress over the course of the decade. The indicators will be used to assess the health of the Nation, facilitate collaboration across sectors, and motivate action at the national, state, and community levels to improve the health of the U.S. population
