The “Current Events in Public Health” assignments are designed to help integrate

The “Current Events in Public Health” assignments are designed to help integrate the concepts in each module and then relate them to public health current events. This week the topic is: finding valid support and using proper citations in your work.
This week, choose one of the articles below that interests you. You will read and summarize it with a personal viewpoint. Then you will practice looking up sources that support the research in the piece you read. Share what you learned and cite the sources properly.
(Hint, we do this assignment first because you will be expected to have facts with references this from here on in! I promise, it will help in all classes!)
Readings
Article 1: Meet Teens Taking On What Experts Call a Mental Health CrisisLinks to an external site.
Article 2: They Escaped from the Woods. Witnesses Describe a School ShootingLinks to an external site.
Article 3: Obesity is Becoming More Common in a Growing Number of StatesLinks to an external site.
Assignment Steps
1. Choose one of the articles above that interests you.
2. Read it and write a 3-5 sentence summary.
3. For paragraph two, use the internet to search the topic of the article and find two more facts to add to the summary. For example, for article 1, find statistics that describe mental health issues and teens. For article 2, show us facts on school shootings. For article 3, find us data on obesity and why it is a problem. The additional information, MUST come from another source. You MUST have TWO more facts and at least one new source.
4. Use what you learned in the citation exercises to cite these two facts in your summary. You must use proper format with at least one with “fact sentence (#)”. The other can be the same or with “According to…”. I show examples of both of these below.
5.For paragraph three add a personal viewpoint. A personal viewpoint is an opinion, not someone else’s words. Suggestions are “I wonder..” “I believe..” type statements.
6. For the bibliography, cite the article you read (pretty easy since I have it right there!) and then you must have at least one and not more than two more sources.
Example: Summary of an article on education and health outcomes.
I read an article about how education impacts your health. In the article they describe many diseases that you are more likely to suffer from if you are not educated (1). Some reasons that were cited were education can improve health are that education improves access and ability to afford health services and it provides skills for better decision making for behavioral choices resulting in less risk of infectious disease (2).
In further research I found that education even means you may live longer, “A seminal 2005 study focused on increases in compulsory education between 1915 and 1939 across US states and found that a year of schooling reduced mortality by 3.6%” (3). The same study by Zajacova and Lawrence found higher disease rates among adults with lower educational attainment.
Although healthcare treatment is an important part of health, if policy better addressed education, some health problems of disadvantaged minority citizens could be prevented just through better education. I am concerned that schools are now limiting what can be discussed in schools on topics that relate to healthcare, infectious disease and risk taking behavior such as sexual activity and exposure to drugs.
1. Long Overdue. Lawmakers Declare Racism a Public Health Emergency. ‘Long overdue’: lawmakers declare racism a public health emergency | Health | The GuardianLinks to an external site.
2. Wolfgang Lutz, Endale Kebede. Education and Health: Redrawing the Preston Curve. Population and Development Review, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/padr.12141Links to an external site.
3.Zajacova A, Lawrence EM. The Relationship Between Education and Health: Reducing Disparities Through a Contextual Approach. Annu Rev Public Health.