Assessment 1 - Public health determinants research paper

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.

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!).

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.

Assessment 2 - Public health interventions report

Requirements:

Consider the same public health issue, population and population groups as in Assignment 1.

Discuss the impact of TWO successful public health primary prevention interventions. The interventions may have: reduced the impact of the contributing environmental or social determinants; modified relevant health behaviours; reduced relevant health risks; and/or have measurably reduced the prevalence/incidence of the health issue.

DO NOT choose medical, treatment or support interventions that are working with people who are already diagnosed, showing symptoms or unwell. If you are unsure about the interventions you have chosen, please discuss them with your tutor.

You are expected to:
- briefly introduce the issue, population and population group;
- describe the interventions,
- summarise the impact of the interventions,
- critically analyse why the interventions were successful,
- make clear recommendations for further public health action.

If you cannot find any interventions that have been implemented with your chosen population, you are able to select interventions that have proved effective in similar populations - or in the same population with similar health issues. Make your rationale for your choice very clear.

Ensure that the interventions are as different as possible (e.g. a screening program, a social marketing campaign or a community-based intervention aiming for environmental change). If you choose interventions that seem similar, you must make a clear case as to what different insights they offer and how they are contributing different ideas or evidence to the recommendations you make.

As with Assessment 1, 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. You also need to ensure that you choose currently accepted public health interventions. Most of your references would thus be published within the last 10 years. It is possible for you to cite older sources if you find early interventions that were never published in detail again once the efficacy a fundamental idea was proven and subsequently implemented.

In addition to the two articles describing your chosen successful interventions, it is expected that you will source information to support your comments from at least 9 appropriate sources. Take care not to overuse websites (use no more than 3) and to only use academically credible websites. As with Assignment 1, a downloaded PDF report counts as a report rather than a website.

Present your paper in accordance with the requirements described in the faculty assignment presentation guide. Note that the 2,200 word count is NOT to include the title page, contents page, or reference page. Graphs, tables or flowcharts are NOT required.

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.