Exercises - PH 424: Community Risk & Protective Factors

In addition to a variety of learning activities, there are 3 instructor-evaluated activities associated with PH 424: (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. Review the basic content for PH 424, which is provided in several online resources:
   • Community Tool Box: Conducting Focus Groups and Leading a Community Dialog
   • National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO): Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) web site (click on the MAPP link to register for access to the MAPP information and resources). Then review the section on Community Health Status Assessment in the MAPP resource materials. Also see the MAPP Field Guide, A Strategic Approach to Community Health Improvement (in PDF format)
   • Institute of Medicine. Improving Health in the Community: a Role for Performance Monitoring. (Executive Summary).
2. You are responsible for preparing a brief written narrative for your community health planning committee that introduces and explains the McGinnis Chart on medical causes of death and lifestyle factors associated with those deaths. What do you want the committee members to understand from this chart and how would you like them to use those concepts in their work?
3. What strategies would you suggest to local public health officials to gain information on risk and protective factors in a community with a large immigrant population?
4. Comment on the ways access to care is usually measured in public health assessment and planning. As a local health administrator interested in improving health of a small area (about the size of a typical Chicago community area), what additional information would you need to get a more complete picture of access to care in a given population? B) Suggest two measures that would provide you with some of the information you desired.
5. Assessing determinants of health in the community is perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of public health practice. This is because the typical tools we have to work with fall short of capturing the specific micro-processes and yet unspecified factors that operate uniquely in a given community (small) environment. For this reason, we often supplement routinely collected data (the available public health data like IPLAN) with primary data collection. This typically includes population (quantitative) surveys and increasingly, qualitative methods of inquiry. Keeping the above in mind, please answer the following question:
   • Drawing upon your own interests in community health, provide an example of how qualitative methods could provide insight into a specific health issue. State the issue and how you think your qualitative approach would or could yield useful new information.
6. Briefly describe two qualitative research methods that could have application for assessment.
7. How can qualitative data assist in understanding the "causes of causes"? (Provide an example from your own interests.)
8. In your opinion, is there currently an appropriate balance between the use of quantitative and qualitative data in community health assessments?

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 424 Individual Exercises" as the title of your submission.

Go to the IPLAN and the Illinois BRFSS websites. Review the indicators for access to health care. A) How are they alike and different? B) In terms of measuring community (small area) health which do you prefer and why?

(2) Conferencing Exercise

Add your contributions to this multi-learner conferencing exercise after reviewing any available submissions by other learners. Consider the arguments and evidence for each position before formulating your opinion and rationale. Produce your response on a separate document to be uploaded at the "Submit Assignments" link. Please use "PH 424 Conferencing Exercises" as the title of your submission.

There are 2 positions to be considered:

• Position A: Causes of unhealthy behaviors are largely due to a lack of education. Therefore public health should measure and intervene in individual level approaches to changing unhealthy or risk behaviors.
• Position B: Causes of most unhealthy behaviors are rooted in macro level structures such as policy, institutional factors. Therefore public health should measure and track these issues and intervene to alter policy and institutional practices.

How would you examine this question using focus groups or a community dialogue? What mix of methods to solicit community beliefs, perceptions and values would work best in your community?

(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 make 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 424 Exercises last revised June 06, 2006 (csong)