PBH 604 Final Paper Instructions
Appropriate conditions/outcomes for a final paper:
Pre-term birth
Characterizing the epidemiology of a condition is a broad enterprise, and covers trends in disease occurrence as well as a comprehensive description of known or suspected risk factors for a condition. Describing the epidemiology of a condition is NOT a discussion of the relationship between a single risk factor and the condition, such as smoking and lung cancer or high sugar diet and diabetes. Reporting on the epidemiology of lung cancer or diabetes would cover much more than these lone risk factors.
Please keep in mind that many infectious diseases have a very limited scope for writing this type of paper, such as those that are very rare and only transmitted to humans under highly unique scenarios, or diseases that are largely vaccine-preventable. At the other extreme, topics that are very broad may be challenging to cover such as obesity, HIV/AIDS, or birth defects. If such topics are of interest to you, it may be more useful to confine them to subsets of the population, such as childhood obesity or HIV/AIDS in undeveloped nations, or selecting a particular birth defect to discuss (e.g., spina bifida, Downs syndrome, hydrocephalus, amniotic band syndrome).
Talk to your instructor about your interest so that an appropriate topic can be selected.
After selecting and receiving approval for your topic, Review the literature of descriptive and other information sources for that condition. Write a 10-14 page paper that presents the information in a logical sequence, described below.
Paper Structure and Content:
Use these 5 major content areas below as headings for your paper (not including a required title page and Bibliography). You may use subheadings of your own creation to better improve the papers organization, but at a minimum the headings and content below must be included. Write as if you are presenting to an audience educated about epidemiology, but perhaps one that does not know much about the condition you are describing. This means you do not need to define epidemiologic terminology in your paper, but you should be applying epidemiologic concepts and using appropriate terms.
Introduction and Relevance to Public Health (1-2 pages)
Briefly introduce/describe the topic by:
o Include prevalence or incidence information in appropriate epidemiologic terminology to indicate the
public health relevance
o No need to go extensively into the frequency of the disease in this section, as youll break them down
in the Descriptive Epidemiology section but use enough quantitative detail about population burden
or impact to give the reader a sense of why this disease/condition/health outcome is important and
how it has changed over time/place
Descriptive Epidemiology (3-4 pages)
Describe the patterns and trends in the disease or condition over populations, places, and time using
descriptive epidemiology terminology and tools:
o Person, place, time – who tends to get this condition, where do they usually live, and at what age; how
patterns of disease frequency vary geographically
o Contrast incidence rates or prevalence by gender, age, race/ethnicity and other relevant subgroups
o Use the most current national and local prevalence and incidence data available
Causes and Risk Factors (3-4 pages)
Discuss the known and/or unknown causes of this disease:
o Provide the currently established risk factors associated with the disease
o Explain relevant mechanisms of disease development or transmission in relation to these risk factors,
to the extent they are understood
Prevention and Research (2-3 pages)
Explain how what is known about the epidemiology of the condition (as youve explained it in the previous sections) contributes to understanding of prevention, considering to following:
o Is population level screening for this disease/condition/health outcome in place, and is it successful?
If not, is it feasible? Why or why not?
o What kinds of epidemiologic study designs have been used to evaluate risk factors for the disease,
and in what ways have they been limited (or not)?
o What kinds of prevention or public health action is in place or needed to prevent morbidity or
mortality of the condition? How are they informed by the epidemiology?
Conclusion (1 page or less)
Summarize the epidemiology of the condition based on what you have read and thought about while writing
the sections above, including but not limited to:
o A one- or two-sentence description of its burden to public health
o A summary of what is understood about its etiology
o How epidemiology has contributed to our understanding of the condition and in what ways
epidemiologic research may be limited in that understanding
o Your thoughts about public health efforts related to this condition
Required Formatting and Length:
The paper should have a title page, be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, have 1 margins, include page numbers, and contain an APA-formatted Bibliography. The use of graphs or charts to explain relationships, describe the condition, or summarize the literature is acceptable, but should not be used in excess. Supporting tables and figures should follow the papers written text, be properly referenced as to their source, and do not count towards the 10 page minimum page count. The Bibliography and title page are also not included in the minimum of 10 pages.
Appropriate References:
There is a 15-reference minimum for this paper. You should use peer-reviewed research articles, at least 10 of which must be primary references (not review articles). Review articles or web sites for major national or international public health entities are acceptable for the remaining references. Examples of these web sites include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, World Health Organization, Environmental Protection Agency, etc. If you are unsure of if a web site would be an acceptable reference, request clarification from the instructor. Format all references in the list and in-text citations according to the
American Psychological Association (APA) standard