Public Health

Task 1: Social Determinants of Health

Your first task this week is to use the videos and documents that have been provided in the course files to gain an introductory understanding of social determinants of health and their relationship to health and health disparities

As you go through videos and the PDF, for your portfolio, make your own notes on:

1. The various determinants of health and their relative contributions to health.
2. The definitions of social determinants of health.
3. How social determinants act to influence health.
4. How policy and planning could affect social determinants.

Task 2: Portfolio Component 2

To complete this task, you may use the city you picked for portfolio component 1 or choose another city.  Spend some looking through data resources that you’ve already identified and locate data on social determinants.  In order to complete this task, you may need to identify further sources of data.  You are looking for data that will allow you to:

1. Identify the top 5 chronic diseases for that city for the most recent available year (OK to use the list from the previous assignment if you are using the same city/town for this assignment.)
2. Make a Table of the Incidence, Prevalence, and Mortality of these diseases (OK to use the table from the previous assignment if you are using the same city/town for this assignment.)
   1. Break the data out by Race/Ethnicity, Sex, Education, Income (as available)

You may find that you need to combine data from multiple sources to complete this task, but be sure to document your data sources.  You may choose to make multiple tables or try to combine the data into one table.

3. Update the table to include any data you can find on other determinants of health. For example:
   1. Behavioral Factors (Alcohol Use, Physical Activity)
   2. Elements of the Built Environment (walkability index, average commute time, major industry, food access, environmental variables)
   3. Social Factors (Race/Ethnicity, Education, Income, Employment rates, residential patterns, medical access, rates of volunteerism, crime statistics)

All of these are provided as examples.  While it is acceptable to use the determinants listed here, be creative and try to identify other determinants, especially ones that you think may be related to diseases which are prevalent in the city you chose and for which significant health disparities may exist.

4. Written Assignment:
   1. Using the data you’ve collected, describe any trends and notable disparities. It is acceptable to use your previous assignment as a starting point.  Build on the previous assignment to describe any trends you see that may be related to other health determinants that you have identified.
   2. Describe some ways in which you think urban planning and development or policy change could address the trends and determinants you have identified.