Unit 2 Assignment: Identifying Causality for a Disease

View an introduction to the Assignment here. Be sure to adjust your audio settings.

Unit outcomes addressed in this Assignment:

• Demonstrate an understanding that causation is fundamental to epidemiology
• Explain and apply criteria for considering causation, including temporal relation, plausibility, consistency, strength, dose-response relationship, reversibility, study design, and evidence
• Identify and describe various study designs used in epidemiology
• Relate the ability of study designs to demonstrate causation

Course outcome assessed/addressed in this  Assignment:

HS312-4: Combine appropriate epidemiological concepts and statistical measures.

GEL-2.1: Relate mathematics to the discipline of Health Sciences.

Instructions

• You are an epidemiologist consulting on a cluster of severe skin rashes of unknown causes. Twelve children on the local Little League team have developed rashes on their upper body (arms, neck and torso). After interviewing the cases, you discover that the League recently purchased jerseys for the team.
• Applying the considerations for causation introduced in this unit, explain what information you have and what information you would need in order to establish a possible causality.
• Then, select and describe a study design that would best allow you to determine causation. In your explanation, identify which statistical measures you would use to support your investigation.

Requirements

• Include an analysis of the eight considerations for causation from Table 5.1 in Chapter 5 of “Basic epidemiology” by Bonita, Beaglehole, and Kjellström
• Identify and apply a study design
• Identify at least one statistical measure
• The minimum length of this Assignment should be one page, not including the title page or reference section
• This paper must follow APA formatting and citation guidelines, including:
  • Title page and Reference page
  • Essay should be double spaced
  • Font size 10 or 12

Please be sure to download the file “Writing Center Resources” from Doc Sharing to assist you with meeting APA expectations for written Assignments.