Problem Identification
1. Describe the leading cause of death, and why this is a leading cause of death,
1. include current data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the number of US deaths. Also look to the CDC Wonder website for data.
2. Include State and local data on the number of deaths (suggested state MA however you may choose another state)
(County Health Rankings will be helpful for State and County data)
2. Describe who is mostly affected: Include demographic information such as males/females;
elderly/youth; race/ethnicity; urban/rural and anything else that would best describe the
population affected.
3. Explain what you perceive to be the upstream cause of death (e.g., what are the social and/or economic factors promoting the cause). Use the Social Determinants of Health model, County Health Rankings (CHR) model, and Social–ecological model to answer this question (see chapter 2 of the Birkhead et al., 2022 text).
4. Can the health issue (the leading cause of death) be lessened by policy at the federal, state, or local level?
