PUB 540 Discuss and define the risk factor or exposure that is being assessed, the method of comparison that is used, and the setting or situation (community, school, workplace, etc.) your study would look to address

PUB 540 Discuss and define the risk factor or exposure that is being assessed, the method of comparison that is used, and the setting or situation (community, school, workplace, etc.) your study would look to address

My choice of study of choice in the debilitating disease of diabetes’s within the African American Community. Studies have shown that 4.9 million African American adults or 18.7% of all African Americans who are twenty years or older have diagnosed or undiagnosed diabetes ( Spanakis and Golden, 2013).  Data proves that biological risk factors are primarily responsible for high risk of diabetic diagnosis in the African American Community, but studies also suggest that making positive changes in known risk factors can aid in the reduction of racial health disparity for developing diabetes.

The study I would propose is a retrospective cohort study to depict the association of diabetes mellitus prevalence among the African American Community in southern regions. The study would place emphasis on population demographics and eating habitats.  I determined that a cohort study would be the most effective, cost efficient and provide informative because the targeted population share similar socioeconomic statutes, predispose familiar genes and similar living conditions/ habitats. Diabetes’s mellitus is common in the African American Community and more prevalent in individuals with low socioeconomic status, limited access to healthcare, unhealthy eating habitats, and sedimentary lifestyles. Therefore, record review such as medical records containing diagnoses, family history and pharmacologic treatment would be relevant data.  Within the geographic areas health departments, and community clinics can provide relative updated data on the population size who has or has had a diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus who are of African American decent. Once the individuals are identified we can use the information to perform a trace history to determine the pertinent history and evaluate social and economic status.  Simply the exposure is identified through self-reporting data. Outcomes will be determined by hospital admissions, increase in commodity of disease (based on affected organs/ end organ damage), hemoglobin A1C and increase in medications or dosage levels for treatment. The above proposed cohort study will be mainly observational since the data obtained will be obtained from medical records.

Through this method of research participants exposure and outcomes are not manipulated. Through the use of data we identify risk factors, access to care, and the problematic issues that can lead to increase disparities in healthcare as it relates to diabetic care in the African American communities. Using the A1c Criteria can lead to pre-diagnosis and aid to prevent the increase or rises in diabetic patients (Kharroubi and Darwish, 2015).

Reference:

Kharroubi, A. T., & Darwish, H. M. (2015). Diabetes mellitus: The epidemic of the century. World journal of diabetes, 6(6), 850–867. https://doi.org/10.4239/wjd.v6.i6.850ence

Song, J. W., & Chung, K. C. (2010). Observational studies: cohort and case-control studies. Plastic and reconstructive surgery, 126(6), 2234–2242. https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181f44abc

Spanakis, E. K., & Golden, S. H. (2013). Race/ethnic difference in diabetes and diabetic complications. Current diabetes reports, 13(6), 814–823. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-013-0421-9