Problem statements serve as the foundation for policy and advocacy initiatives. They assist in defining the public health issue and in communicating the urgency it poses to the general public. Though there are many formats for writing problem statements, the one that you write for this course will rely heavily on epidemiological and medical evidence. It will also capture the social determinants of health that are of influence. To better understand the requirements for your problem statement, reflect on the following guidelines and example, adapted from a presentation given by Dru Bhattacharya, the author of your course text.
Parts to include:
• Who/where. Identify the population of interest.
• What. Identify the magnitude or severity.
• When. Identify the time frame to contextualize.
• Why. Identify the social determinants that impact the public health issue.
Example:
• Bad: Overweight and obesity is high.
• Better: Overweight and obesity has increased over the past decade.
• Even better: The incidence of overweight and obesity among urban adolescents has increased 200% from 2001 to 2011.
• Best: The incidence of overweight and obesity among urban adolescents has increased 200% from 2001 to 2011. Health inequities such as economic stability, access to employment, and housing stability have had a large impact on this population's health.
In this Discussion, you create a problem statement for the topic and public health issue you selected for your Scholar-Practitioner Project. You then justify this problem statement with epidemiological and medical evidence.
Discussion, carefully review the epidemiological and medical evidence that justifies the problem statement you have created for your public health issue. Then, review this week's Learning Resources, paying particular attention the concepts of bias, confounding, interaction, and causality.
Post problem statement and explain the epidemiologic and medical evidence that supports this as a public health problem. Then, describe issues of bias and confounding that should be (or should have been) taken into consideration and explain the potential for interaction that furthers the evidence for establishing causality. Support your post with the Learning Resources and peer-reviewed sources.
Learning Resources
Dean, H. D., Williams, K. M., & Fenton, K. A. (2013). From theory to action: Applying social determinants of health to public health practice. Public Health Reports, 128(Suppl. 3), 1-4.
Geneletti, S., Gallo, V., Porta, M., Khoury, M. J., & Vineis, P. (2011). Assessing causal relationships in genomics: From Bradford-Hill criteria to complex gene-environment interactions and directed acyclic graphs. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology, 8(1), 5-22.