Your task is to design a cohort study that allows for further exploration of the social determinates of health that places an individual or community at risk for your selected health problem (from Assessment One) which was suicide in Australia. You need to be specific with age group. For example you may choose to write between 12 to 25 years old who committee suicide (adolescents). Do not write in general, you must be specific. You need to choose particular age group, which is committing suicide more than others and must be from Australia.
The design needs to be in enough detail for someone else to understand how to conduct the study and is to focus on social determinates of health.
1. In the introduction you must briefly describe:
a. Social epidemiology and how it differs from traditional (classical) epidemiology, and
b. Discuss the social determinants of health associated with suicide in young people aged between 14 to 22 years old.
2. Select one or more of the social determinates that are risk factors to developing the health problem and develop a cohort study to investigate this relationship.
3. This cohort study must include the 9 main steps for writing a study protocol as outlined (by dot points) in Bonita, Beaglehole, and Kjellström (2006, p. 182:
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/9241547073_eng.pdf). Also read Chapter 7 in
Merrill (2013) for further information.
Here is a link with a video from my teacher of how this essay should be written. Please listen the instruction before you start writing the essay: https://youtu.be/oSDBs4RIBfE
This will guide you: Introduction:
Comment 1: Hi this does not introduce the assignment – what is the assignment about? What are you going to discuss? To which study are you referring? Always assume the reader does not know the topic.
Cohort studies:
Comment 2: Each sentence must make sense in itself – the word ‘they’ does not indicate to what you are referring. What is a cohort?
Commjent 3: It would be better to clearly describe what a cohort study is before plying this knowledge to a specific example. This paragraph is unclear – who are ‘they’?
Disadvantages of cohort studies
Comment 4: Needs some explanations- why?
Social Epidemiology versus Classical epidemiology
Comments 5: always acknowledge your source of information.
Comment 6: Some examples would be good in this section, plus explanations – you make statements in this assignment without any explanations.
Adolescents and the Social Determinants
Comment 7: I think this section is too long – too much detail for social determinants. This section is worth 10 marks, the demonstration of your knowledge 10 marks and the cohort study 25.
The target population, Selection Criteria and the stakeholders of what?
Comment 8: You have not indicated that you will undertake a cohort study. It needs to be clear what you are doing, why, and how.
Comment 9: Realistically I am not sure how you are going to prevent the adolescents being in such a family or environment or ‘cure’ their poverty.
Comment 10: Unclear- do you mean secondary schools?
Comment 11: You need more details – how old are the adolescents? Remember a lot will leave school at 16y. Will they be all schools or a random selection? How many participants? More details needed.
Impacts of Social, Economic Status on Health
Comment 12: Please do not use broad sweeping statements without any evidence. Who says the adolescents are not respected are not treated equally? Some of your statements are quite emotive, judgmental and could cause offence to adolescents and youth workers. This was also an issue with your first assignment – it is not academic writing doing this – the writing should be objective and non-judgmental.
Comment 13: You need to give rationales for the study design eg the selection, process and target population. The justification for the study should be earlier. In your introduction to why you are doing the study.
The budget and timelines
Comment 14: Rationale for the budget
You have not answered the question in parts. The cohort study needs answering. See the marking criteria and learning guide – you were to use the 9 steps by Bonita et al. Details need to be given so that someone else can follow and do the study. Rationales relate to the details of your cohort study plan and not the social issues.
