It is an 8-page paper, single space Times New Roman 12-pt font about a public health issue.
The issue I chose was water and food scarcity implementing change through the Health Behavior Model (HBM — susceptibility, severity, barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action.). Some of my ideas for this change included water conservation, food education, and teaming up with the local community to build a community garden. The requirements are copied below.
Each student will select a public health problem and write a final paper that address various aspects of the problem. The goal of this assignment is help students think critically about major issues in the application of social and behavioral sciences to public health, and to improve your professional writing skills. Over the course of the semester you will be required to complete small assignments to make sure you are working towards your final paper at the end of the summer session.
Students are to select a public health problem that is of interest to them. You may select a behavioral or social risk factor (e.g., smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, air pollution, neighborhood characteristics) or a health-related outcome (e.g., cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease, sickle cell disease, health-related quality of life). You will be required to complete the following components:
(1) Present the descriptive epidemiology of the risk factor or outcome;
(2) Review evidence of which risk factors are potentially modifiable, discuss how theory has been applied to understand and solve the problem, and develop a community based participatory research (CBPR) program to improve the problem by modifying risk factors using health behavior theory; and
(3) Develop an evaluation plan and budget for your proposed CBPR intervention.
Paper Section 1:
Define/describe the public health problem and the population of interest (e.g., age range, geography, urbanicity)
Present epidemiological data on its major causes and mortality/morbidity trends
Present racial/ethnic and/or socioeconomic disparity data
Comprehensively summarize behavioral risk factors and/or social/environmental determinants of the problem that have been identified in the literature
Provide references to support all claims. A “claim” is any statement of fact or interpretation that can be challenged. All evidence cited in your paper – for mortality/morbidity trends, race/SES disparities, risk factors, etc. – must be supported with citations. Citations should be PRIMARY sources, including peer-reviewed data-based scientific articles and government data repositories (e.g., https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/index.htm). Do not rely on summaries of research from third-party websites (e.g., https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org), newspaper articles, Wikipedia, etc. In using peer-reviewed scientific articles, be sure to use primary sources, i.e., data-based articles that present original research findings.
Do not rely exclusively on “narrative reviews” of research findings (described here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/narrative-review) or cite articles that are described “second hand” in another research article – find and read original research studies to support your claims using Pubmed, Psycinfo,or a similar health sciences database available through The University of Memphis Libraries. Although narrative reviews should not be used to support claims, it is acceptable to make use of systematic reviews and meta-analyses (described here: http://www.bandolier.org.uk/painres/download/whatis/Syst-review.pdf).
Be sure that in-text and end-of-document citations are properly formatted in APA or AMA style. (See useful websites below for APA and AMA formatting guidance).
Paper Section 2:
From the comprehensive list of behavioral and social determinants of the public health problem that you developed in Paper Section 1, select those that have the most potential to be modified (i.e., changed through public health intervention or policy). Present evidence from primary research articles and systematic reviews/meta-analyses to support that these determinants can be modified. Remember that the strongest evidence will come from 1) interventions or 2) prospective observational studies in which the exposure (i.e., a behavioral or social determinant) is assessed prior to an outcome (i.e., an indicator of the health problem).
Identify a health behavior theory that has (or could be) applied to modify determinants of the public health problem. Describe how the theory’s constructs have been applied to prevent or treat the problem by addressing its behavioral and social determinants. If the theory has not been applied to the particular problem you are investigating, you may review studies that applied the theory to another problem and describe how/why you think it can be applied to the problem you are studying.
Using the selected health behavior theory, describe plans for a CBPR intervention aimed at multiple levels of influence (i.e., individual, interpersonal, and community). This should be an intervention that you design rather than a description of an existing intervention from the literature. Because you will design an evaluation or the CBPR intervention you describe here in the final section of your paper, it is important that you are specific about what risk factors and outcomes will be targeted and how you propose to change these risk factors based on your selected health behavior theory. The clearer you are in the specifics regarding your intervention, the easier it will be to develop your evaluation plan.
State who your community partners will be and define their specific roles on your project. Your proposed intervention should be truly “community-based.” Don’t merely propose hiring individuals to run the project. Instead, describe how the intervention program will be embedded in the community. What essential tasks will each person or organization perform to make your CBPR intervention successful?
