Create a 3-5-page report presenting three or more specific high-priority health improvement needs in a community of your choosing.
Introduction
Each of us belongs to multiple populations: our neighborhood community, workplace, family, and so on. In the workplace, employers recognize the positive benefits of a healthy lifestyle such as reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, and fewer health insurance claims. In the community, health care organizations, community health centers, health districts, and other key stakeholders promote wellness and a healthy lifestyle in hopes to improve the overall health of the community. Reducing obesity, the harmful effects of smoking, drug, and alcohol use, or the transmission of HIV may be the focus of community-wide health initiatives. Overall improvements in health status across a given population are an important goal of politicians, legislators, employers, and community leaders.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has emphasized the importance of these initiatives, and health care leaders are tasked with building cultures of health and wellness for their communities (Nash, Fabius, Skoufalos, & Clarke, 2016). Population health initiatives have been widely impacted since the passage of the law as new programs are introduced to achieve the key objectives. These programs have evolved from a focus on a single illness to more robust, comprehensive interventions that seek to improve the overall health of the population (Nash, Fabius, Skoufalos, & Clarke, 2016). Collaborative efforts between health care providers, politicians, and community organizations are beginning to form as stakeholders recognize the wide variety of services necessary to treat an entire population (Nash, Fabius, Skoufalos, & Clarke, 2016).
At the highest level, the United States Congress and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) establish health care policy while individual health care workers are tasked with implementation at the lowest level. As of this writing, the Trump administration is making efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Although the new administration indicates that it has many of the same goals and objectives of improving population health as the previous administration, the far-reaching effects and final policies remain unknown.
An important concept in community and population health is epidemiology, which is defined as the study of the distribution and determinants (causes and risk factors) of health-related states and events in specified populations (CDC, 2017). It is a method used to find the causes of health outcomes and diseases in populations (CDC, 2017). Public health announcements, such as news of flu outbreaks, are based on epidemiology studies. Epidemiology is an important part of public health, as it helps to identify specific risk factors for diseases to improve preventative healthcare outcomes. Epidemiology is data driven and quantitative in design (CDC, 2017). It relies on sound research, as it tests hypotheses grounded in biology, behavioral sciences, and physics (CDC, 2017). Epidemiological studies can cover a wide variety of public health concerns including smoking, obesity, maternal health, HIV, influenza, vaccine use, and outcomes.
