Programs, Policies, and Social Conditions that Contribute to Health Inequity
Assignment 2: Programs, Policies, and Social Conditions that Contribute to Health Inequity
While diversity is often considered a strength of the United States, it also presents unique challenges to providing and ensuring health equity for all citizens. The purpose of this assignment is to review a health issue and examine the programs, policies, and social conditions that may have contributed to related health disparities. This is your first Learning Assessment System Assignment (LASA).
1. Using the Argosy University online library resources and the assigned readings for this module, complete the following:
- Identify a health issue that is linked with social or economic disadvantages.
- Examine the group or groups that have been adversely affected by these disadvantages. Provide data and other information to demonstrate the extent of the problem.
- Broadly review the literature on health disparities, and this condition specifically, to answer the following questions:
- What programs, policies, and social conditions may have contributed to the health inequity?
- What changes have been made in programs, policies, or social conditions to promote health equity for this health issue? What additional changes do you suggest?
Grading Rubric
This assignment is worth 200 points and will be graded using a rubric.
Write a 4–5-page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.doc.
By Wednesday, January 22, 2014, deliver your assignment to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox.
Suggested REFERNCE SITE:Alcohol: 5. What social and economic problems are linked to …
www.greenfacts.org/en/alcohol/l-2/05-social–economic–problems.htm
What social and economic problems are linkedto alcohol use? … health care and other social institutions. … identify information gaps,
Suggested reading
- From the Internet, read:
- US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities. (2011). Introduction and background. In HHS action plan to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities (pp. 1–5). Retrieved from
http://www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa/templates/
content.aspx?lvl=1&lvlid=33&ID=285
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Additional information which may be of use;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
What can we do to reduce, stop, and eradicate health inequities? In an article in the American Journal of Public Health, James Colgrave (2002) asked a critical question associated with the direction of public health:
Are public health ends better served by narrow interventions focused at the level of the individual or the community, or by broad measures to redistribute the social, political, and economic resources that exert such a profound influence on health status at the population level? . . . . A large and growing body of research [suggests] that broad social conditions must be addressed in order to effect meaningful and long-term improvement in the health of populations. (p. 726)
Fortunately, it is not necessary to abandon individually-focused interventions to address social and policy concerns. This course focuses on public health models and theories beginning with individual behavior change and continuing through interpersonal, community, and policy levels of an ecological framework. The specific focus on health disparities in this module is not to separate the issue from theory but to emphasize the importance of considering socioeconomic and cultural factors at every level of change.
Colgrave, J. (2002). The McKeown thesis: A historical controversy and its enduring influence. American Journal of Public Health, 92(5), 725–729.
