Question

An epidemiologic profile is a summary of a significant public health issue, or issues, in your community, county, state, or country. An epidemiological profile helps to coordinate activities and policies from various agencies and organizations to improve health.

Review the available data, reports, and documents for your locale. Assess how the methods of epidemiology (study designs, data collection, measures of association, etc.) are used to determine who needs what services, where the services are needed, and how those services should be delivered. Define your community as your city, metropolitan area, or county and write a 2,000-2,250 word epidemiological profile (word limit excludes references and title page).The profile can be a general profile that provides a landscape picture of several significant chronic and infectious diseases in your defined community, or it can be a specific profile that targets one health issue, such as diabetes, asthma, STDs, flu, heart disease, obesity, alcohol abuse, or other drug use. Include the following:

Executive Summary

1. Describe the purpose of the epidemiologic profile and the health issue(s) it addresses. Discuss its importance to the community and how it will be utilized.
2. Summarize the key findings from your review of available data, reports, and documents for the community.

Introduction

1. Describe the defined community and population using demographic and socio-economic information and data.
2. Briefly describe the history and cultural background of the community.
3. Explain any unique contextual information that pertains to the public health of the defined community.
4. Describe any key public health projects, grants, or existing epidemiology-related working groups or committees in the community/county.

Description of Available Data

Identify at least two different data sources relevant to your profile. Discuss data from these sources and their relation to the issue or community.

Discuss the methods used in the data collection process (data source and organization providing the data; how often the data are collected; data limitations including response rates, missing data, selection of participants, etc.). Potential data sources and databases might include the following depending on what is available for your community or county:

1. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data
2. Youth risk behavioral survey
3. Surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) program data
4. CDC Wonder (multiple data sources)
5. County health rankings data (multiple data sources)
6. Alcohol-related disease impact data
7. Demographic health survey data (international)
8. Global school-based student health survey (international)
9. Local evaluation reports from the department/ministry of health or other nonprofit organizations

Interpretation of Results Regarding Key Health Issue

1. Size and magnitude of the measures
2. Trends and comparisons
3. Economic costs

Discussion of Problems and Strategies

1. Discuss disparities, limitations, and gaps in the information available regarding the health issue(s).
2. Describe potential public health strategies to address these gaps.
3. Use graphs and tables where appropriate.

Conclusion

You are required to cite to at least five sources to complete this assignment. Sources should be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and public health content.

General Requirements

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

Answer 1

Obesity has plateaued among women and girls regardless of ethnicity, although it continues to increase among men and boys. Obesity rates among low-income children aged 2-5 have decreased significantly in 18 states. Rates of severe obesity have continued to increase in the United States, necessitating the addition of clinical approaches to initiatives aimed at prevention.

The prevalence of obesity in women has plateaued in recent years, while the rate among men has continued to increase. SOURCE: Ogden et al., 2012.

*Obesity continues to increase among African American and Hispanic women. Among women, the highest prevalence of obesity occurs among African Americans: more than 50 percent of African American women are obese. About 40 percent of Hispanic women are obese. By comparison, about 30 percent of Caucasian women are obese. Among men, in contrast, obesity rates are similar across all major ethnic groups.

*According to the most recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data, adult obesity rates now exceed 35% in seven states, 30% in 29 states and 25% in 48 states. West Virginia has the highest adult obesity rate at 38.1% and Colorado has the lowest at 22.6%. The adult obesity rate increased in Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and South Carolina between 2016 and 2017, and remained stable in the rest of states.

Although Mexico's war of independence pushed out Spain in 1821, Texas did not remain a Mexican possession for long. It became its own country, called the Republic of Texas, from 1836 until it agreed to join the United States in 1845. Sixteen years later, it seceded along with 10 other states to form the Confederacy.

Maria del Mar Bibiloni,Antoni Pons, and Josep A. Tur, "Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in Adolescents: A Systematic Review"(2013) ISRN Obesity,doi: 10.1155/2013/392747

• The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is currently the only ongoing nationally representative population survey that directly measures participants’ heights and weights. All other nationally representative surveillance surveys with samples that include children and adolescents to collect self- or proxy-reported height and weight data.
• At the time of this report, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS, describing high school students) and administrative data from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC, describing program participants) are two data sources that currently include individuals ages 18 years and younger and generate obesity prevalence estimates for multiple individual states and localities. The redesigned National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) is expected to begin releasing state-level estimates in 2017.

To find the articles included in this review, the following inclusion criteria were used:

(1) cross-sectional studies conducted in the last 12 years (1999–2011)—when the original study did not report the survey year, it was not included;

(2) national and regional representative samples, but articles published on the prevalence of overweight in towns, urban, or rural areas in a country were excluded;

(3) weight and height objectively measured;

(4) results presented by sex;

(5) and for both overweight and obesity prevalence;

(6) the definition of overweight and obesity using the

(i) CDC-2000 [5],

(ii) IOTF [6], and

(iii) WHO-2007 growth references;

(7) studies are written in English, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese. Moreover, if there were more than one national or regional study in the same country, the most recent one was included in the prevalence tables (except for USA and Canada countries in which the most recent data was not included in the tables due to differences in the representativeness of the samples and the impossibility to calculate a single prevalence of overweight and obesity for adolescents' boys and girls; however, no differences in prevalence were observed between studies as it has been indicated in the discussion).

The final number of articles included in this review was 39 articles related to overweight and obesity and also a study on the latest statistics on the prevalence of overweight and obesity in South Africa

*Results

Literature Search

A total of thirty-nine articles and a National Health Report were eligible according to the inclusion criteria established for this review. Forty studies selected for this review including the continent and the country where it was performed (and region for not national studies), year of publishing, the total number of participants in the study, number of adolescents, age range, the proportion of girls, and number and definition for overweight and obesity classification used. All the articles were published after the year 2002. Nationally representative data were obtained in twenty-five countries (including Northern Ireland) [15–39], and ten countries were represented only by regional data.

1.Kristy Breuhl Smith, Kristy Breuhl Smith, Kristy Breuhl Smith.Michael Seth Smith,(2015), "Obesity Statistics", Elsevier Clinics Review Articles, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pop.2015.10.001

2.L. Brown, H. Poudyal, S. K. Panchal (2015)," Functional foods as potential therapeutic options for metabolic syndrome", World Obesity, Obesity Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12313

3.Negin Navaei, Shirin Pourafshar, Neda S. Akhavan, Nicole S. Litwin, Elizabeth M. Foley, Kelli S. George, Shannon C. Hartley, Marcus L. Elam, Sangeeta Rao, Bahram H. Arjmandi and Sarah A. Johnson, Influence of daily fresh pear consumption on biomarkers of cardiometabolic health in middle-aged/older adults with metabolic syndrome: a randomized controlled trial, Food & Function, 10.1039/C8FO01890A, (2019).

4.Daniela Frasca, Bonnie B. Blomberg, Roberto Paganelli, "Aging, Obesity, and Inflammatory Age-Related Diseases", Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, United States, https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2017.01745

5.David R.Meldrum, Marge A.Morris, Joseph C.Gambone, "Obesity pandemic: causes, consequences, and solutions—but do we have the will?",Elsevier,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2017.02.104