NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

What is Epidemiology?

Epidemiology is the ‘science concerned with the study of the factors determining and influencing the frequency and distribution of disease, injury, and other health-related events and their causes in a defined human population. Also, the sum of knowledge gained in such a study’. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

There are two main types of Epidemiology. The first one is descriptive which describes the occurrence of the disease according to people, place and time and the second is analytic which determines the causation, risk factors for health, disease and association.

Descriptive epidemiology describes and investigates the scale of the problem. This is the amount of people that have developed or caught the disease over a specified period. e.g. in 2004 there were 44,659 cases of newly diagnosed breast cancer in the UK. From this epidemiologists would look at the prevalence, the number of people that have the disease or condition at any particular time. e.g. the number of people who are regular smokers within a specified time period. The next factor is to look at how the condition is spread. This is done by analyzing categories such as age, gender, socioeconomic class and ethnicity e.g. women from lower social classes are much more likely to smoke than women in higher social classes. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Examples of questions asked to collect this data are as follows:

  • What are the health problems?
  • How many people are affected?
  • Who is affected?
  • Which communities are affected and why?
  • What are the trends?

Answers to these questions can indicate if primary prevention is possible and it can show the seriousness of the problem and how individuals and communities may be affected.

Analytical epidemiology aims to answer the question, why did it happen? This is done by identifying and determining the causes and risk factors for health and disease. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Comparisons have to be made between groups with or without the disease and between groups exposed and not exposed to a possible causal factor.

Causation can show if there is a link from a certain disease to environmental influences, lifestyle or socioeconomic factors. To find the cause, epidemiologists can use inferential statistics to draw inferences about a  population from a random sample. From analyzing the results and assessing the risks, a link between events and contributory factors can be draw and this can vary from negligible to high. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Assessing the needs and analyzing the data

The first step in planning health promotion is to assess the needs and this consists of two elements. Firstly are the health service needs, which are determined from health data such as occurrence, frequency, mortality and morbidity. Secondly is the community determined needs covering issues that individuals and communities have brought to the attention of the local authority, politicians and letters etc. Sometimes these two elements overlap but it is important to identify which are priorities for communities. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Health data is analyzed according to who has been affected and this shows which communities are affected the most so that resources can be allocated. From this information about prevention begin.

Prevention

Primary prevention consists of trying to keep people healthy and free from disease such as immunization and encouragement of healthy lifestyles. Secondary prevention tries to identify the disease and persuade people to go for treatment at the earliest opportunity. Examples could be a cough that could lead to tuberculosis or a fever that could lead to influenza. In some conditions once the disease has developed it can often be too late, so one of the key roles of health promotion is to encourage screening i.e. breast cancer. Tertiary prevention involves actions if the disease has become very serious. This is to promote recovery and focus on rehabilitation to help speed the recovery. An example of primary prevention would be lung cancer as it is know what causes it, but it is not suitable for breast cancer as the causes are not yet known. Prevention can only take place if the causes can be established. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Causes

Epidemiologists need to establish causes and to look at many factors such as the environment, society and individuals. They also need to find out what causes the cause as there can be a whole chain of causal factors triggering a chain of events.

These study designs are used for finding out possible causes, although they do not prove causal relationships as they just look at associations. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

There are two types of analytical study designs. The first is group one which are used for finding out possible causes. Ecological studies compare studies of a particular disease in different communities to try to ascertain the cause.

Cross-sectional studies sample a section of society at one particular time to see if there are common characteristics between people. Case control studies compare a sample of people with a disease to a sample without and a conclusion can be drawn to see if characteristics are more likely to be found in people with the disease.

Group two analytical studies are stronger design studies which are used to provide evidence for causal relationships. Cohort studies, also known as prospective or longitudinal studies are when a large sample of the population is followed over a long period of time to monitor their lifestyle and exposure to the risks. From this, the incidence of the disease can be followed to look for causal risks. Examples of this are following a sample of the population for fifty years to see if there is a link between smoking and lung cancer. Intervention study involves exposing a random selection of people to a health promotion trial to find out if the if intervention has health benefits and then to compare the results to a group of people who have not. Results can be analyzed to establish if there are key variable such as income, age, distribution, etc. Relative or attributable risk provides a measure of the strength of a causal relationship. Decisions can be made from this as to how many lives could be saved if the causal factor was removed. Epidemiologists have also to work out which are confounding factors, ones that can appear to be associated with a disease but are not a causal. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

From all the information and studies undertaken there has to be a systematic review to identify which studies have strong conclusions. From the evidence, reasons can be worked out for showing the causes of health problems and disease and an action plan for health promotion can be set out.

Epidemiology is an essential key discipline in health promotion and unless the specific factors that cause a health problem are identified, action cannot be taken to prevent it and promote health.

Swine flu and Epidemiology

What are the health problems?

In the case of swine flu, dry cough, sore throat, headache and fatigue are the most common associated symptoms. Typically patients will have a fever over 38C. Most people recover in a week without any specific treatment.

How many are affected

In swine flu the number of cases in the UK rose quickly after the first established cases in Scotland. By May 312009, there were 252 confirmed cases in the UK.Seventy of these had been to Mexico or the US seven days prior to infection, and 178 reported that they had not been abroad. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Public Health is a blend of sciences, skills and convictions that is focused on the preservation and improvement of the health of all people through preventive (rather than curative) measures.

Epidemiology is considered a basic science of public health. Epidemiology is: a) a quantitative discipline built on a working knowledge of probability, statistics, and sound research methods; b) a method of causal reasoning based on developing and testing hypotheses pertaining to occurrence and prevention of morbidity and mortality; and c) a tool for public health action to promote and protect the public's health based on science, causal reasoning, and a dose of practical common sense (1).

The word epidemiology comes from the Greek words epi, meaning "on or upon," demos, meaning "people," and logos, meaning "the study of." Many definitions have been proposed; here are two that capture the underlying principles and the public health spirit of epidemiology:

"Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to the control of health problems." (2).

"Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease frequency in man." (3). NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

These definitions of epidemiology include several terms which reflect some of the important principles of the discipline:

Study - Epidemiology is a scientific discipline and has at its foundation, sound methods of scientific inquiry.

Distribution - Epidemiology is concerned with the frequency and pattern of health events in a population. Frequency includes not only the number of such events in a population, but also the rate or risk of disease in the population.

Pattern refers to the occurrence of health-related events by time, place, and personal characteristics.

  • Time characteristics include annual occurrence, seasonal occurrence, and daily or even hourly occurrence.
  • Place characteristics include geographic variation, urban-rural differences, and location of work sites or schools, for example.
  • Personal characteristics include demographic factors such as age, race, sex, marital status, and socioeconomic status, as well as behaviors ( such as occupation or risk-taking activity) resulting in environmental exposures. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper
This characterization of the distribution of health-related states or events is one broad aspect of epidemiology called descriptive epidemiology. Descriptive epidemiology provides the What, Who, When and Where of health-related events.

Determinants - Epidemiology is often used to search for causes and other factors that influence the occurrence of health-related events such as diseases, syndromes, and injuries. Analytic epidemiology attempts to provide the Why and How of such events by comparing groups with different rates of disease occurrence and with differences in demographic characteristics, genetic or immunologic make-up, behaviors, environmental exposures, and other so-called potential risk factors. Under ideal circumstances, epidemiological findings provide sufficient evidence to direct swift and effective public health control and prevention measures.

Health-related states or events - Originally, epidemiology was concerned with epidemics of communicable diseases. The discipline was extended to endemic communicable diseases and noncommunicable infectious diseases. Modern epidemiology has been applied to chronic diseases, injuries, birth defects, maternal-child health, occupational health, and environmental health. Now, even behaviors related to health and well-being (amount of exercise, seat-belt use, etc.) are recognized as valid subjects for applying epidemiological methods. The term "disease" refers to the range of health-related states or events. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Specified populations - Although epidemiologists and physicians in clinical practice are both concerned with disease and the control of disease, they differ greatly in how they view "the patient." Clinicians are concerned with the health of an individual; epidemiologists are concerned with the collective health of the people in a community or other area. When faced with a patient with diarrhea disease, for example, the clinician and the epidemiologist have different responsibilities. Although both are interested in establishing the correct diagnosis, the clinician usually focuses on treating and caring for the individual. The epidemiologist focuses on the exposure (action or source that caused the illness), the number of other persons who may have been similarly exposed, the potential for further spread in the community, and interventions to prevent additional cases or recurrences.

Application - Epidemiology is more than "the study of." As a discipline within public health, epidemiology provides data for directing public health action. To treat a patient, a clinician must call upon experience and creativity as well as scientific knowledge. Similarly, an epidemiologist uses the scientific methods of descriptive and analytic epidemiology in "diagnosing" the health of a community, but also must call upon experience and creativity when planning how to control and prevent disease in the community. As a public health discipline, epidemiology is instilled with the spirit that epidemiological information should be used to promote and protect the public's health. Hence, epidemiology involves both science and public health practice. The term applied epidemiology is sometimes used to describe the application or practice of epidemiology to address public health issues. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Examples of applied epidemiology include the following:

  • the monitoring of reports of communicable diseases in the community
  • the study of whether a particular dietary component influences your risk of developing cancer
  • evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of a cholesterol awareness program through quasi-experimental study design
  • analysis of historical trends and current data to project future public health resource needs
  • clinical trial randomizing communities into different strategies for risk reduction

    ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

Epidemiology as the study of distribution and determinants of disease frequency in human populations can and should be considered a basic science in medicine. Indeed, epidemiological principles and methods (including methods of statistical analysis) form the basis of any medical research, from case reports and other descriptive studies to cohort studies and experimental clinical trials. A randomized controlled trial is no more than a cohort study in which the investigator(s) allocate the exposure being studied to the participants in a random manner. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

The advancement of medical knowledge follows a process resulting in a “spectrum of evidence.” Medical hypotheses are generated at the lowest level of evidence, where either clinical observations are made in a case-series or associations are observed in ecologic studies. An ecologic study is defined as an association study where associations between exposures and outcomes are made at the group level (ie, without jointly measuring exposures and outcomes in the same individuals). For example, it has been noted that individuals living in southern France and Italy have a unique diet (exposure), and also that they tend to have low rates of stroke and heart disease (outcome), suggesting a potential association of the diet and cardiovascular risk. Observations from these domains are considered weakest because of the lack of comparison groups in case-series and because multiple alternative pathways that can account for ecologic associations. The next level of evidence is considered the observational epidemiological studies that are generally classified as being (1) case-control, (2) cross-sectional, or (3) longitudinal cohort, and for a variety of reasons there is also considered to be a spectrum of increasing evidence as one moves from the case-control to the cross-sectional, and again when one moves from the cross-sectional to the longitudinal cohort study. All of these study designs increase the level of evidence by measuring exposures and outcomes in the same individuals, but are subject to the introduction (or obviation) potential of spurious relationships through confounding factors. Finally, the randomized clinical trial is considered the “gold standard” of evidence, largely because of protection from the impact of known or unknown confounding factors through the process of randomization. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Recognition of this increasing spectrum of evidence is important for 2 reasons. First, the evidence to support proposing a randomized trial is specifically provided by the earlier steps in the spectrum. One does not propose a trial without solid and convincing observational data, and one does not propose an observational study without solid and convincing ecologic or case-series data. The development of evidence is a process that has to be supported at all levels. In addition, most of the decisions in medical care are made on the basis of evidence that has not progressed to the level of randomized trials. This situation results from 2 observations: (1) randomized trials are remarkably expensive, and it is fiscally impossible to mount a trial to address the need for each class of information, and (2) the level of evidence is sometimes so strong that mounting a trial is considered unethical. Extreme examples of this latter observation are that there will never be a randomized trial of the harmful effects of smoking (requiring randomization of children to be smokers or nonsmokers), or the beneficial effect of parachutes (randomization to leaving airplanes with and without a parachute), or protective benefit of seat belts (randomization so that some cars will and will not have seat belts). An appreciation of this spectrum of evidence is important to both understand how a question advances to ever-higher levels of evidence, and how most medical decisions are made at lower levels of evidence. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Despite this, there is a recent worrisome trend to downplay the importance of epidemiological studies, especially nonexperimental epidemiological studies. Some academicians and medical research funding institutions tend to consider non experimental epidemiological studies as a ‘cold’ non exciting research and indicate their preferences for clinical trials. Yet, as noted above there are a number of practical and theoretical issues in medicine that can only be answered by non experimental epidemiological studies, and experimental studies cannot be mounted without peer-reviewed and published evidence from the observational studies.

In addition to the important roles of descriptive epidemiological studies (case reports, case series, surveys, ecological studies) in the generation of etiological hypothesis, they also provide for the description of the frequency and/or patterns of disease occurrence at the individual or societal levels. Population-based surveys are crucial for quantifying the disease burden, contributing to evidence-based healthcare planning, and evaluating effectiveness and relative contribution of various primary and secondary/tertiary preventative measures for reducing burden of the disease/condition. In addition, analytic non experimental epidemiological studies often offer the only feasible alternatives to address specific hypotheses, such as the critically important role of case-control studies to test etiologic hypotheses in rare diseases. Whereas clinical trials can be mounted to study rare diseases, studies of primary prevention are impeded by required sample size to establish end points, and secondary prevention studies are impeded by difficulties in recruitment. At best, the number of questions that can be addressed through clinical trials of rare diseases is limited by the worldwide availability of patients. Hence, although properly designed randomized controlled trials remain the gold standard for testing cause-effect associations, there are a number of instances when such associations can only be tested in non experimental studies because of practical or ethical concerns. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper Thus, descriptive and analytical epidemiological studies are interrelated and compliment each other, and the choice of a particular study design should not be based on the ‘individual’ or funding agency preferences but rather on the methodological, ethical and practical appropriateness of a particular epidemiological study design.

In the recognition of importance of epidemiological studies in stroke, a Section of Population Studies has been recently formed in the Stroke journal. As newly appointed Editors of this Section we would like to encourage researchers from all over the world to submit good quality papers on stroke epidemiology to our world-leading stroke journal. We would also like to take this opportunity to reinforce the importance of epidemiological studies in stroke and to call on funding research organizations to increase their funding support for these studies. Efforts should be made to ensure new good quality epidemiological studies in stroke in various countries and populations, including continuation of good quality ongoing stroke surveillance studies. We, together with other members of the Stroke Editorial team, are committed to ensure fast and objective peer-reviewing of all submitted manuscripts to ensure timely publication of manuscripts that meet Stroke journal acceptance criteria.

Public health nursing is the practice of promoting and protecting the health of populations using knowledge from nursing, social, and public health sciences.

Public health nursing is a systematic process by which:

  1. The health and health care needs of a population are assessed in order to identify sub populations, families and individuals who would benefit from health promotion or who are at risk of illness, injury, disability or premature death.
  2. A plan for intervention is developed with the community to meet identified needs that take into account available resources, the range of activities that contribute to health and the prevention of illness injury, disability, and premature death. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper
  3. The plan is implemented effectively, efficiently and equitably.
  4. Evaluations are conducted to determine the extent to which the intervention has an impact on the health status of individuals and the population.
  5. The results of the process are used to influence and direct the current delivery of care, deployment of health resources, and the development of local, regional, state, and national health policy and research to promote health and prevent disease.

This systematic process is based on and is consistent with:

  1. Community strengths, needs and expectations;
  2. Current scientific knowledge;
  3. Available resources;
  4. Accepted criteria and standards of nursing practice;
  5. Agency purpose, philosophy and objectives; and
  6. The participation, cooperation, and understanding of the population.

Other services and organizations in the community are considered, and planning is coordinated to maximize the effective use of resources and enhance outcomes.

The title “public health nurse” designates a nursing professional with educational preparation in public health and nursing science with a primary focus on population-level outcomes. The primary focus of public health nursing is to promote health and prevent disease for entire population groups. This may include assisting and providing care to individual members of the population. It also includes the identification of individuals who may not request care but who have health problems that put themselves and others in the community at risk, such as those with infectious diseases. The focus of public health nursing is not on providing direct care to individuals in community settings. Public health nurses support the provision of direct care through a process of evaluation and assessment of the needs of individuals in the context of their population group. Public health nurses work with other providers of care to plan, develop, and support systems and programs in the community to prevent problems and provide access to care. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Public health nursing, a term coined by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement, or community health nursing, is a nursing specialty focused on public health. Public health nurses (PHNs) or community health nurses "integrate community involvement and knowledge about the entire population with personal, clinical understandings of the health and illness experiences of individuals and families within the population."[1] Public health nursing in the United States traces back to a nurse named Lillian Wald who, in 1893, established the Henry Street Settlement in New York City and coined the expression "public health nurse".

Public health nurses work within communities and focus on different areas to improve the overall health of the people within that community. Some areas of employment for public health nurses are school districts, county or state health departments, and departments of correction. The public health nurse looks for areas of concern within the community and assesses and plans ways through which the concerns can be resolved or minimized. Some health concerns a public health nurse may work on are infection control, health maintenance, health coaching, as well as home care visits for welfare and to provide care to certain members of the community who may need it. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

What is epidemiology? It may be formally defined as the “study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states or events in specified populations, and the application of this study to control of health problems.” In other words, epidemiology is the study of our collective health. Epidemiology offers insight into why disease and injury afflict some people more than others, and why they occur more frequently in some locations and times than in others— knowledge necessary for finding the most effective ways to prevent and treat health problems.

The term “epidemiology” springs directly from “epidemic,” which originally referred to communicable disease outbreaks in humans. Epidemic is derived from the Greek roots epi (upon) and demos (people). The third component of epidemiology, the Greek root logos, means study. Demos and another Greek root, graphein (to write, draw), combine to form the term demography, a kindred population-based science. Not only do epidemiology and demography share a linguistic heritage and other historical origins, they also overlap considerably in their data sources and research domains. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Epidemiology has a descriptive dimension that involves the identification and documentation of patterns, trends, and differentials in disease, injury, and other health-related phenomena. This science also has an analytic dimension, in which the etiology, or causes, of these phenomena are investigated. Epidemiology also helps investigate how well specific therapies or other health interventions prevent or control health problems.

Because health is multifaceted, epidemiology is interdisciplinary. Epidemiology is substantively and traditionally connected to the health and biomedical sciences such as biology, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and pathology; and it is closely tied to statistics or, more precisely, bio statistics. In the search for solutions to health problems, however, the interdisciplinary net of epidemiology is often cast beyond these traditional boundaries to incorporate still other disciplines, such as social and behavioral sciences, communications, engineering, law, cartography, and computer science. The complexity of health problems has even spawned specialties within the discipline, including clinical epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, nutritional epidemiology, reproductive epidemiology, injury epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, social epidemiology, and veterinary epidemiology. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Many epidemiologists have earned degrees in medicine or some other specialty as well as graduate degrees or certificates in epidemiology. They work in diverse occupational settings— including international, national, and local health agencies and universities; teaching hospitals; and private corporations. Epidemiologists may be found, for example, in the chemical, pharmaceutical, electronics, energy, automotive manufacturing, and air travel industries.

Epidemiology provides a unique way of viewing and investigating disease and injury. The keys to understanding health, injury, and disease are embedded in the language and methods of epidemiology. Many of the basic epidemiological concepts are familiar to most people, although only superficially understood. They reside in such everyday terms as exposure, risk factor, epidemic, and bias. This Population Bulletin explains the terms, methods, and materials scientists use to study the health of populations, as well as the historical underpinnings of the modern-day science of epidemiology. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

This module introduces the basic statistical methods used in medical and public health research, and helps students develop the skills needed to apply them using statistical software. By the end of this module, students should be able to describe and apply statistical methods in epidemiology and population health including: deriving and presenting quantitative results using appropriate tables, figures and summaries; explaining the nature of sampling variation and the role of statistical methods in quantifying it; calculating confidence limits and evaluating hypotheses. Student will learn the appropriate methods for sampling surveys. Students completing this module will be able to: select appropriate statistical methods for the analysis of simple data sets and apply them on computer using statistical software; interpret and assess the output from statistical analyses in relation to research and other questions being asked and present and discuss the findings from statistical analyses in a clear, concise and logical manner. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

Population health has been defined as "the health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group".[1] It is an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire human population. This concept does not refer to animal or plant populations. It has been described as consisting of three components. These are "health outcomes, patterns of health determinants, and policies and interventions".[1] A priority considered important in achieving the aim of Population Health is to reduce health inequities or disparities among different population groups due to, among other factors, the social determinants of health, SDOH. The SDOH include all the factors (social, environmental, cultural and physical) that the different populations are born into, grow up and function with throughout their lifetimes which potentially have a measurable impact on the health of human populations.[2] The Population Health concept represents a change in the focus from the individual-level, characteristic of most mainstream medicine. It also seeks to complement the classic efforts of public health agencies by addressing a broader range of factors shown to impact the health of different populations. The World Health Organization's Commission on Social Determinants of Health, reported in 2008, that the SDOH factors were responsible for the bulk of diseases and injuries and these were the major causes of health inequities in all countries.[3] In the US, SDOH were estimated to account for 70% of avoidable mortality.[4] NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

From a population health perspective, health has been defined not simply as a state free from disease but as "the capacity of people to adapt to, respond to, or control life's challenges and changes".[5] The World Health Organization (WHO) defined health in its broader sense in 1946 as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."[6][7]

most important public health problems and concerns

The CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control updated its Prevention Status Reports Monday, which ranks the biggest public health issues in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The Prevention Status Reports organize information on state public health policies and practices in a format that is easy to use for public health professionals, community leaders and policy makers. The reports allow these individuals to understand their state's status and identify improvement areas. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

According to the reports, the 10 most important public health problems and concerns are (listed alphabetically):

  • Alcohol-related harms
  • Food safety
  • Healthcare-associated infections
  • Heart disease and stroke
  • HIV
  • Motor vehicle injury
  • Nutrition, physical activity and obesity
  • Prescription drug overdose
  • Teen pregnancy
  • Tobacco use

Population Health Metrics addresses issues relating to concepts, methods, ethics applications, and results in the measurement of the health of populations. This includes areas of health state measurement and valuation, summary measures of levels of population health, and inequality in population health, descriptive epidemiology at the population level, burden of disease and injury analysis, disease, and risk factor modeling for populations and comparative assessment of risks to health at population level. The journal provides a platform for population health researchers in all these areas to share their findings with the global research community. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

The Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) approach to community development aims to simultaneously improve access and equity to primary health care services, particularly family planning and reproductive health, while also helping communities conserve biodiversity, manage natural resources, and develop sustainable livelihoods.PHE often goes the “last mile” by extending services beyond existing government and private health care clinics and hospitals to extremely remote communities. In addition to improving health and conservation outcomes, the integrated PHE approach may support people to become more resilient and better able to adapt to climate change. Today, the number of organizations implementing PHE projects is increasing, and interest in this approach continues to grow among stakeholders and decision makers at the local, national, regional, and international level. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

This course will introduce learners to the fundamentals of the PHE approach including PHE relationships, the benefits of integration, program considerations, the PHE policy and advocacy landscape, and how the PHE approach can contribute to global development priorities, such as the Sustainable Development Goals and Family Planning 2020 in an efficient and effective way. Learners will also benefit from case examples showcasing these concepts in current and recent PHE projects around the world.

An ideal population health outcome metric should reflect a population’s dynamic state of physical, mental and social well-being. Positive health outcomes include being alive; functioning well mentally, physically and socially; and having a sense of well-being. Negative outcomes include death, loss of function, and lack of well-being. In contrast to these health outcomes, diseases and injuries are intermediate factors that influence the likelihood of achieving a state of health. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper

  1. Life expectancy from birth, or age-adjusted mortality rate;
  2. Condition-specific changes in life expectancy, or condition-specific or age-specific mortality rates; and
  3. Self-reported level of health, functional status, and experiential status.

When reported, outcome metrics should present both the overall level of health of a population and the distribution of health among different geographic, economic and demographic groups in the population. NURS 8310 - Epidemiology and Population Health Case Study Paper