Exercises - PH 412: Understanding and Measuring Health

In addition to a variety of learning activities, there are 3 instructor-evaluated activities associated with PH 412: (1) complete the individual exercise; (2) participate in a multi-learner conferencing exercise; and (3) complete and submit the assessment quiz. Each of these is explained below.

Learning Activities (Note: these ARE NOT to be submitted!)

A series of individual learning exercises for this module are provided below. Completing these exercises will familiarize you with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that relate to the competency expectation for this module that is described above. Note that learners are not required to submit written response for these learning exercises. Completing these exercises, however, will prepare you for components of this module that are assessed and scored.

1. Read Chapter 2, Public Health: What It Is and How and Works, 3rd Edition.
2. Is poverty a cause of poor health in a community, or is poor health a cause of poverty? How would different views of this question influence public health policy?
3. Review the list of leading health indicators for Healthy People 2010 (Exhibit 2-2 of the text) and the list of proposed indicators for community health profiles (Exhibit 2-3 of the text). Your governor has directed you to recommend a panel of health indicators to guide a new statewide health improvement initiative in your state. Which of these lists would you recommend? Why? Are there any measures that you would recommend adding to your preferred list?
4. Visit the Internet web site of one of the national print media (e.g., Chicago Tribune, New York Times, USA Today, Time Magazine, etc) and use their search features to identify recent stories on public health. Catalog the health problems (both conditions and risks) from that search and compare this to the "Listed and Actual Causes of Death" (Table 2-4 of the text). Are the types of conditions and risks you encountered in the print media similar to those on Table 2-4? Were some conditions and risks either over- or under-represented in the media in comparison to their relative importance as suggested by Table 2-4? What are the implications for the role of the media in informing and educating the public regarding public health issues.
5. Examine each of these web sites providing general information on public health. Which ones are most useful for the major topics examined in this part of the course? Why?
   • Healthfinder a DHHS-sponsored gateway site that provides links to more than 550 web sites (including more than 200 Federal sites and 350 state, local, not-for-profit, university and other consumer health sources), links to nearly 500 selected online documents, links to frequently asked questions on health issues, and links to databases and web search engines by topic and agency
   • Fedstats a gateway to a variety of federal agency data and information, including health statistics
   • National Center for Health Statistics, an invaluable resource for data and information. Visit its Health United States 2002 Web Site where you can find and download the very useful publication, Health United States 2002 with Trends in the Health of Americans Chart Book. This can be downloaded or viewed from the NCHS web site. (Note: this is a very large file that is not easily viewed or downloaded using modem connections to the Internet. High speed Internet connections work best for downloading this publication!)
   • CDC Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Reports and MMWR morbidity and mortality data by time and place
   • CDC WONDER system
   • IPLAN data set for Illinois counties and communities (IPLAN = Illinois Project for Local Assessment of Needs)
   • Chicago data by community area
   • Catalog of local and Illinois health data sets
   • US census data---the best general denominator data anywhere
6. Compare the Public Health Achievements in Twentieth-Century America presented in Chapter 1 (Control of Infectious Diseases, including Advances in Childhood Immunizations) and Chapter 2 (Tobacco Use). Both are available at the Century of Progress in Public Health case study site. Which of these achievements (infectious disease reduction or tobacco use reduction), in your opinion, has had the greatest impact on the heath status and quality of life of Americans living in the year 2000? Justify your selection.
7. After reviewing the Tobacco Use achievement from the Century of Progress in Public Health case study site, select a health outcome related to tobacco use and analyze that health problem for its determinants and contributing factors, using the method described in the text. Identify at least two major determinants for that problem. For each determinant, identify at least two direct contributing factors, and for each direct contributing factor, identify at least two indirect contributing factors.
8. Population, poverty, and pollution are sometimes cited as the 3 most important factors influencing global health status today. After examining the World Health Organization (WHO) web site, briefly cite your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with this assertion.

Evaluated Activities (Note: these ARE to be submitted!)

(1) Individual Exercise

Each learner will submit a brief response to the following exercise. Produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 412 Individual Exercise" as the title of your submission.

You are the health reporter for the community newspaper serving Kane County (Illinois). You were recently at a meeting where you learned of the existence of the IPLAN data set which you thought you might use to write an article on the health of Kane County residents. Your article is to be about 500 words. It should summarize the health of this county in terms of health status, risk factors, contributing factors and other important information. Your article should also identify any limitations in the data used and suggest any additional sources of data that would also be useful.

(2) Conferencing Exercise

Add your contributions to this multi-learner conferencing exercise. Produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 412 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.

Each learner will contribute to a discussion involving the most appropriate factors to be listed as the official causes of death on death certificates. There are 3 propositions to be considered:

• Proposition A: disease entities should be listed as official causes of death.
• Proposition B: underlying factors that result in these diseases should be listed as official causes of death.
• Proposition C: no causes of death should be listed on death certificates.

Review the postings by other learners providing arguments and evidence in support of one of these positions. You should review the positions and their supporting arguments and evidence before responding by indicating the position that you believe is most effectively presented. Your posting should be brief (less than 100 words) and it should include your arguments, evidence and rationale. Additional information on death certificate information issues and on listing causes of death on actual death certificates is available for anyone interested.

(3) Assessment Quiz

Follow the LearningSpace link to the Assessment Quiz. You may be asked for your login ID and password to access the quiz through your Preparedness Center Personal Page. Complete the quiz and submit your responses. You may take the quiz several times.

Course Evaluation: All learners are asked to electronically complete a Course Evaluation Questionnaire; this is available to you as an electronic form and will be transmitted to a data base without your identity being known, and your instructor will have no way to link your identity to your comments. Before participating in these course evaluation activities, students should review the specific learning objectives established for this course (and others you may have taken as part of this series); these are available in the Syllabus. Evaluation of the course should focus on the extent to which these objectives were achieved.

PH 412 Exercises last revised June 06, 2006 (csong)