Case Study: Descriptive Epidemiology
If you read the “Health” page (either paper or web-based) of any major news source (e.g., The New York Times, CNN), reports of the occurrence of health outcomes are common headlines. For example, you may see the following or similar headlines:
“Breast Cancer Increasing in Asian-American Women”
“Teenage Smoking at an All-Time Low”
Have you ever wondered where this information comes from and what it really means?
Governmental agencies and other organizations routinely collect descriptive epidemiological statistics on many health outcomes. For example, statistics on the occurrence of cancer in the United States have been continuously collected since the early 1970s through the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute.
For this Case Study Assignment, you will analyze and interpret descriptive epidemiologic statistics. To prepare for this Assignment, review the material presented in the textbook.
A case study worksheet will be provided by your instructor for this Assignment in the form of a Microsoft Word document. Download the worksheet and type your answers directly into the document to complete the Assignment. Be sure that your completed worksheet contains your responses to all questions.
Prior to submitting your Descriptive Epidemiology Case Study, review the Module 2 Case Study Assignment Rubric.
