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PUBH 2101 Health surveillance and epidemiology

ASSESSMENT BRIEF
Course Code and Title	PUBH 2101: Health surveillance and epidemiology
Assessment	Assessment 5: Critical review of a published study
Individual/Group	Individual
Learning Outcomes	3, 4, 7
Submission	The end of Module 6
Weighting	30%
Total Marks	30 marks

Context:

Being able to locate and interpret a published journal article is an important skill for working in all areas of health. In the Public Health arena, people who design policies, programs and interventions use evidence-based published research to guide their decisions and recommendations. These articles can be accessed using electronic databases, which are often made available through your institution’s library website. The ability to locate, read and make sense of a published study will be important to you in employment in the Public Health field; this assignment provides opportunity for you to practice locating a peer reviewed article in a field of interest to you, and critically review it.

Instructions:

This assignment focuses on locating and critically evaluating a research paper. Use the Torrens University Australia Library database to find one peer-reviewed article, focusing on a cohort study in public health.

In no more than 1500 words write a critical review of the article, IN YOUR OWN WORDS, that addresses the following elements:

Introduction

Provide a clear introduction to your review including:

The peer-reviewed paper’s title and authors, the year of publication, and journal
The overarching public health issue the study aimed to address

Review

Describe the study by identifying the following (e.g. Study Design/Methods):

Population/s evaluated
Timeframe
Disease/condition (and how the prevalence/incidence was measured)
Location (geographic or otherwise)

Summarise the study’s key findings in your own words including (e.g. Results):

Key trends/results observed
Comparison within/between populations

Discuss the importance/significance of the study’s results/key findings (e.g. Discussion) in regards to:

The populations observed, the disease/condition, the location
The broader context and body of knowledge (e.g. knowledge gap or Introduction)

Were any study limitations or additional knowledge gaps identified as a result of the study? (e.g. Discussion/Conclusions)

Submission

Submit your written assessment AND the article that you chose to review.

Grading:

Refer to the attached marking rubric for grading scheme and weighting.

Expert's Answer

While earlier studies have analyzed the general public epidemiology of drug use disorder, the authors know that, by using standardized methodologies and general population surveys, this is the first and most comprehensive cross-border analysis of the prevalence and the comparisons of drug use disorder. There were very different dominance of DUDs i.e. Australia, the USA and New Zealand had the greatest DUDs rates while the African, Latin American, Middle East and Asian countries had a much smaller prevalence. This broad spectrum correlates to other evidence regarding shifts in the prevalence and issue of illegal drug misuse. There were higher DUDs in younger people than elderly adults, which means that the issue of drug use has shifted over time.

In addition, in mid-teen years, the danger of developing DUDs quickly spread to young age people with nearly half of all cases starting from age 20, but the effect continues to be mild. The findings in relation to income were contradictory. The popularity of illegal drug uses and DUD in high-income nations was substantially higher than in low-income nations. It was also clear that the variations found in drug use rates in various countries vary considerably from the trends of disparities in DUD conditions.