Please write a 450 word discussion post reply to the following post. Must have

Please write a 450 word discussion post reply to the following post. Must have 3 scholarly citations in APA format. Sources must be within last 5 years. Please include a biblical integration with a bible verse. Biblical integration is not used as one of the references. Textbook is: Khaliq, A. A. (2020). Managerial epidemiology. (1st ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN: 9781284082173.
Original instructions for post is here: Discuss the value of assessing the distribution of diseases in concepts of persons, places, and time. How can descriiptive epidemiology assist the health care administrator in market analyses? Cite at least one peer-reviewed case of the utilization of disease distribution in the formation of policy or delivery of health care in a specific population.
Post you will reply to is here:
According to the Khaliq text (2022), descriiptive epidemiology relates to the distributive component in the definition of epidemiology because it enables our understanding of the distribution of disease in one or more populations or localities. Since diseases are not randomly distributed, understanding the distribution of a disease in people, place, and time is necessary to inform and develop hypotheses about its etiology, to understand the magnitude of the problem, to plan medical and nonmedical interventions, and to estimate the need for health services in specific markets and populations by health administrators and others involved in healthcare delivery. In other words, descriiptive epidemiology answers questions about who, where, and when in the distribution or occurrence of a disease (Khaliq, 2022).
Person: “Who”
The demographic characteristics of people such as age, race, sex, occupation, and income allow us to group people into different categories and these characteristics are important because people in one group may be more or less susceptible to one disease or another in comparison with another group. The reasons for such susceptibilities or protections are varied and can result from differences in genetic makeup, the extent of exposure to risk factors, and levels of resistance or immunity to diseases (Khaliq, 2022). As an example, workers in different industries can be exposed in varying degrees of intensity and duration to a variety of hazardous factors, and these factors result from people’s exposure to various biologic, chemical, physical, or psychological factors in the work environment (Khaliq, 2022). All of these conditions can be prevented with appropriate protections and safeguards, so healthcare administrators would need to understand the occupational risk profiles of the populations they serve in order to assist in developing and implementing appropriate safeguards and plan for the resources needed to do so. The recent COVID-19 global pandemic gave rise to many descriiptive epidemiological studies based on demographic characteristics that informed local response and align it with the community being served, and to do this effectively it was necessary to understand who was being infected and dying according to age, race, sex and socioeconomic status (Fox et al., 2020).
Place: “Where”
Medical geography, also known as health geography, examines the impact of geography and climate on individual and population health and can be described as the field of research that combines medicine and geography to investigate the spatial distribution and determinants of health, disease, and healthcare delivery (Khaliq, 2022). Disease geography, described by some as a component of medical geography, is descriiptive in nature and relates spatial distribution of a disease to geographic and environmental characteristics through the use of frequency data. The second component of medical geography focuses on the geography of healthcare delivery and utilization. For example, the exclusive occurrence of a disease in an area or a higher incidence of some diseases in certain areas may reflect the influence of culture, diet, housing, or exposure to natural elements (Khaliq, 2022). Healthcare administrators would need to be aware of the unique disease geographies of the populations they serve in order to understand the strategies that would be needed to address the cause(s). For example, certain tickborne illnesses show a clear pattern of geographic distribution in the Northeastern states according to the text. Therefore, health administrators serving populations living in these states might want to develop and implement aggressive campaigns on protective strategies, such as using appropriate tick repellents, wearing appropriate clothing when outdoors, and checking for ticks after being outdoors during peak months. Medical geography was relevant to the recent COVID-19 global pandemic when spatial analysis was used to analyze the correlates of COVID-19 cases and the variables with statistically significant associations with county-level COVID-19 cases, such as demographic variables (i.e., race/ethnicity), socioeconomic factors (i.e., income and housing conditions), and population mobility (i.e., the level of commuting ties between counties). The county-level analysis provided evidence on the embeddedness and connectedness of places and informed the importance of relative locations to local decision makers (Sun, 2020).
Time: “When”
According to the Khaliq text (2022), the study of the distribution of a disease over short or long periods of time can reveal patterns of incidence and prevalence. Many infectious diseases typically have seasonal and cyclical epidemic patterns, and these patterns are associated with environmental or climatic conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, as well as patterns of human behavior related to these natural occurrences. Plotting of an epidemic curve for relatively short-lived foodborne bacterial or viral outbreaks of disease can also be informative regarding the source of infection and the nature of the organism responsible for the disease outbreak (Khaliq, 2022). Graphs of changing patterns of incidence, prevalence, or mortality from chronic diseases such as cancers, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease in a population over longer periods of time can also provide valuable information about the efficacy of health policies and effects of new diagnostic technologies, new treatments, screening programs, or educational interventions (Khaliq, 2022). Healthcare administrators would use this information to plan specific interventions for the populations they serve based on their understanding of the trends in risk factor prevalence and the incidence of disease that could indicate potential associations between them. For example, the frequency of behaviors such as smoking are useful to determine if the healthcare administrator needs to develop and implement smoking cessation programs for the population served and their demographic characteristics.
Example of Healthcare Delivery in a Specific Population Based on Disease Distribution
A recent example of how disease distribution was used to inform healthcare delivery occurred in Germany and the efficacy of an enhanced mammography screening program for breast cancer. This study focused on women, since breast cancer is the most common cancer-related death for women in Germany. To address this, Germany developed a program based on European guidelines for breast cancer screening. Key features of the program are: 94 mammography units with each covering a population of about 500,000 to 1 million, a centralized population-based invitation system that sends an invitation every 2 years with a proposal of time and place for the mammography, independent double reading of mammograms, high level quality assurance by reference centers and a national evaluation unit with yearly benchmarking (Katalinic et al., 2020). Today, almost 100% of German women aged 50 to 69 years are invited to have mammography screening every 2 years, and participation rate is about 50% since the year 2009. As a result, late-stage breast cancer incidence and breast cancer mortality has been attributed to this program.
Biblical Perspective
Psalm 103:2-4 says: “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion” (NIV, 2011). As healthcare administrators, we must never forget that God is The Great Physician and when we need inspiration and strength in the face of disease, injury and death we need only to look to Him to provide it. He is our refuge and our fortress in such times, whether it be during a global pandemic or other challenging situation that calls for a need to understand the distribution of disease to inform local decision making according to the population’s specific needs and His will.
References
Fox, M. P., Murray, E. J., Lesko, C. R., & Sealy-Jefferson, S. (2022). On the need to revitalize descriiptive epidemiology. American Journal of Epidemiology, 191(7), 1174-1179. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwac056Links to an external site.
Katalinic, A., Eisemann, N., Kraywinkel, K., Noftz, M. R., & Hübner, J. (2020). Breast cancer incidence and mortality before and after implementation of the German mammography screening program. International Journal of Cancer, 147(3), 709-718. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.32767Links to an external site.
Khaliq, A. (2020). Managerial epidemiology: Principles & applications. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
New International Version (2011). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+103%3A2-4&version=NIVLinks to an external site.
Sun, F., Matthews, S. A., Yang, T. C., & Hu, M. H. (2020). A spatial analysis of the COVID-19 period prevalence in US counties through June 28, 2020: Where geography matters? Annals of Epidemiology, 52, 54-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.07.014Links to an external site.