What To Do

Now that you know the health problem's relevance to your organization, you can prepare for action by exploring the problem more fully.

You can shape a fuller picture of the health issue you plan to address by considering some important questions:

• Who is affected?
  
• In what ways are people affected?
  
• What general health, environmental, or social conditions are related to and/or are affected by the problem?
  
• How common is the problem?
  
• How severe is the problem?
  
• Where does the problem exist geographically?
  
• Where does the problem originate?
  
• What trends are related to the problem?
  
• What time factors are related to the problem? When did the problem originate? What times of year is it more or less prevalent?

How To Do It

Describe the Health Problem

Describing the health problem serves several purposes:

• To aid in understanding the problem's scope and effects
  
• To gather clues about how to reduce the impact of the problem and its causes
  
• To describe the problem clearly to others, including potential partners and stakeholders

In describing the problem, you should take into account these issues:

• Population affected
  
• Types of effects
  
• Frequency of occurrence
  
• Severity
  
• Type of problem
  
• Plausible theoretical perspectives
  
• Geographic occurrence
  
• History/origin of the problem
  
• Trends

Sources

You can describe the problem with help from various sources:

• Data and information from CDC's website: (http://www.cdc.gov)
  
  
  • Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/)
    
  • Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/)
    
  • National Center for Health Statistics (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/)
    
    
• Data and information from other agencies' websites
  
  
  • Department of Health and Human Services (http://www.os.dhhs.gov)
    
  • Department of Justice (http://www.usdoj.gov)
    
  • National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (http://www.nhtsa.gov)
    
    
• Secondary literature cited in bibliographic databases
  
  
  • MEDLINE
    
  • PSYCINFO
    
  • AGELINE
    
  • CANCERLIT
    
  • UNCOVER
    
  • AIDSLINE
    

    Many of these databases can be accessed through the National Library of Medicine's website http://www.nlm.nih.gov and http://www.cancer.gov/cancer_information/cancer_literature/.

• Statistical Abstracts of the United States Census (http://www.census.gov)
  
  
• National surveys
  
  
• Roper Center for Public Opinion Research (http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu)*
  
  
• Vital statistics reports and monographs from state health departments
  
  
• Reports of federal and state agencies
  
  
• Partners (for example: foundations, associations, drug companies)
  
  
• Epidemiologists in your organization
  
  
• Collection of original data using various methods (see Tools for Research)

When this step is completed, you should have a detailed look at the problem you have selected. The expanded description will help you identify the sub-groups affected by the problem.