| Course | DHA 731 Population Health and Epidemiology (DHA/731) |
|---|---|
| Week | 8 |
| Paper type | Population health recommendation |
| Length | about 1,155 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | DHA |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for DHA 731 Week 8
Investing in Health, Not Only Health Care: A Population Health Recommendation for a Rural North Carolina Health System
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
DHA/731: Population Health and Epidemiology
Week 8 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The health network, its budget, programs, costs and governance are composites written for a model paper. County figures are real CDC PLACES 2025 release estimates for Bertie, Halifax, Hertford and Northampton counties; research findings come from the sources cited.
The network's board asked the regional vice president for a five-year population health strategy for the rural region. Over the past year, the population health team had profiled the region, calculated its burden, weighed evidence, read surveillance data, projected needs, allocated a grant and prepared for an emerging threat. The board wanted one plan, with priorities, costs and measures. This paper presents it.
The Region's Health
The four counties' adults carry a heavy burden. Crude prevalence of diagnosed diabetes ranged from 18.9% to 20.3% and high blood pressure from 48.1% to 52.0%, obesity was about 43% and current smoking ranged from 17.2% to 19.8% (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2025). Food insecurity affected 23.9% to 29.1% of adults, and 11.8% to 14.4% lacked reliable transportation (CDC, 2025).
What Drives These Outcomes
These numbers have causes beyond the clinic. Braveman and Gottlieb gather evidence that the settings of everyday life shape health through behavior, chronic stress and access to resources, and they argue that money, assets and schooling sit upstream of nearly every outcome the clinic sees, acting as root causes rather than side factors (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014). The four counties have among the lowest incomes in the state, a fact that underlies much of their disease burden. A health system cannot raise wages or build schools, but it is often the largest employer and purchaser in a rural county. It can hire locally, pay living wages, buy from local businesses and support education pipelines into health careers, using its economic weight on the causes of poor health as well as their consequences.
Health Spending and Social Spending
Where money goes matters. Bradley and colleagues found that states with a higher ratio of social service and public health spending to Medicare and Medicaid spending had significantly better subsequent outcomes for seven measures, including adult obesity, mentally unhealthy days and mortality from heart attack and type 2 diabetes, and they argued for broadening the debate from spending on health care to investing in health (Bradley et al., 2016).
What the Course's Analyses Showed
Each earlier analysis added a piece. Converting rates to counts showed about 16,600 adults with diagnosed diabetes. Appraising evidence supported community health workers with moderate certainty. Surveillance showed overdose deaths falling statewide but local risk persisting. Projections showed dementia rising about 25% by 2040. Allocation by tract concentrated resources in ten high-need tracts. And the avian influenza analysis showed the value of trusted outreach to exposed workers.
Why Not More Hospital Services?
The board's instinct is often to add services: a new cardiology clinic, another imaging machine, more specialists. Some additions are needed, but the evidence suggests that more medical care alone will not change the region's outcomes as much as control of common conditions and attention to food, transportation and income. The strategy therefore invests mainly outside the hospital's walls.
Priority One: Chronic Disease Control
Diabetes and high blood pressure affect the most people and drive avoidable admissions. The region will build registries for both conditions, expand community health workers from eight to sixteen, evaluated with the waitlist design, and set targets for blood sugar and blood pressure control. Controlling blood pressure in half of the region's adults would prevent more strokes than any new hospital service.
Priority Two: Food Security
Food insecurity undermines chronic disease management. The hospitals will screen every patient, work with regional food banks and county social services, and fund produce prescriptions for patients with diabetes in the highest-need tracts.
Priority Three: Transportation and Access
With up to one adult in seven lacking reliable transportation, the region will fund rides to clinics, pharmacies and grocery stores, expand telehealth with broadband partners and bring mobile clinics to the most isolated tracts on a regular schedule.
Priority Four: Preparedness and Trust
The avian influenza and overdose analyses showed that trusted outreach is the region's best tool against emerging threats. The region will maintain bilingual community health workers and relationships with churches, employers and community groups that can be mobilized quickly.
Equity
Each priority is aimed first at the ten high-need tracts identified in the allocation analysis, where diabetes and food insecurity overlap. Progress will be reported separately for those tracts and for Black and Hispanic residents, so that improvements in averages do not hide widening gaps.
Year-by-Year Plan
Year one builds registries, hires community health workers and launches screening. Year two expands food and transportation programs. Years three through five scale what the evaluation shows is working and end what is not.
Paying for the Strategy
Consistent with the spending evidence, the strategy shifts resources rather than only adding them. The region will redirect 2% of its operating budget, about $3.3 million a year, from services with low value, such as unnecessary imaging and duplicate testing, toward the four priorities, supplemented by grants and shared savings from value-based contracts.
Partnerships and Governance
A population health council with county health directors, social service agencies, food banks, faith leaders, employers and residents of high-need tracts will set targets, review data and approve investments. One seat in three will belong to residents, who will be paid for their time, so that the people most affected shape the decisions rather than simply being consulted about them.
Data Plan
The region will combine annual PLACES estimates, its clinical registries, social needs screening data and surveillance reports in a shared dashboard, reported by tract where possible. Because PLACES estimates are modeled and cannot show local program effects, the region's own clinical and screening data will be the main tools for judging progress.
Risks
The strategy could falter if the reallocation meets resistance from departments losing funds, if partners lack capacity or if federal changes reduce Medicaid coverage. Phasing the reallocation over three years, investing in partners' capacity and tracking coverage closely reduce these risks.
Measures and Evaluation
Measures include blood sugar and blood pressure control, avoidable admissions, food insecurity among screened patients, missed appointments due to transportation and community trust. The evaluation will compare changes in the region with similar rural counties and will report results whether favorable or not. Programs that show no benefit after two years will be redesigned or ended, and their funds moved to what works.
One-Page Summary for the Board
The summary lists the four priorities, their targets, the $3.3 million reallocation, the council's membership and five measures the board will review twice a year. It also names the executive accountable for each priority and the date of the first public report to the community.
Conclusion
The region's heavy burden of chronic disease and social need reflects causes beyond the clinic. Evidence shows that investing in social services and public health improves outcomes. Four priorities, funded by shifting resources from low-value care, governed with partners and measured honestly, give the health system a strategy for improving health, not only delivering care.
References
Bradley, E. H., Canavan, M., Rogan, E., Talbert-Slagle, K., Ndumele, C., Taylor, L., & Curry, L. A. (2016). Variation in health outcomes: The role of spending on social services, public health, and health care, 2000-09. Health Affairs, 35(5), 760-768. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0814
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: It's time to consider the causes of the causes. Public Health Reports, 129(Suppl. 2), 19-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549141291S206
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). PLACES: Local data for better health, county data, 2025 release [Data set]. data.cdc.gov. https://data.cdc.gov/d/swc5-untb
What the DHA 731 Week 8 instructions ask
The final DHA 731 assignment commonly asks for a population health recommendation for health care leaders. Students are generally asked to summarize the population's health using data, integrate evidence and analyses from earlier weeks, propose a prioritized set of actions, justify them with epidemiologic and economic reasoning, address equity and partnerships, describe resources and governance and define measures and an evaluation plan. Some versions add an executive summary for decision makers. Limit it to a single page if so. Strong papers build on real data, prioritize a few actions with the greatest expected effect, address the social causes of poor health as well as clinical care and include honest measures of success and failure.
How this DHA 731 Week 8 example is built
The board's request for a five-year population health strategy opens the paper. The region's health is summarized with real county data on chronic disease and social needs. Evidence on the social determinants of health and on the balance between social and health spending frames the strategy. Earlier analyses on measures, evidence, surveillance, projections, allocation and emerging threats are integrated, and the board's likely objections are answered. Four priorities are recommended: chronic disease control, food security, transportation and preparedness. Partnerships, governance, a budget reallocation and a data plan are described. The paper ends with measures, an evaluation design and a single-page brief the board can approve.
DHA 731 Week 8 grading rubric: where the points go
The final population health week generally rewards integration of the course, strong use of data and evidence and a clear, prioritized recommendation. Graders look for the population's health summarized with cited data, earlier analyses brought together, a small set of priorities justified by evidence, attention to social causes and equity, partnerships and governance described, resources identified and measures and evaluation defined. Research on social determinants and spending strengthens the paper. Reallocating resources rather than only adding new ones earns credit, as does an honest evaluation plan. Concise writing and a correct APA reference list earn the final marks. Recommendations that ignore social causes or lack measures usually score lower, as do long lists of programs with no priorities.
DHA 731 Week 8 help: mistakes to avoid
Many DHA 731 Week 8 papers list every program discussed during the course. Choose instead. Start with the population's data and the evidence on what drives health, then pick a few priorities where your organization can make a measurable difference with partners. Justify each with numbers: how many people, how much need, what effect is likely. Address social causes, not only clinical care, and say how resources will shift to pay for them. Build governance with community members and public health. Define measures for each priority and an evaluation that can show failure as well as success. Close with a one-page summary a board could approve, listing targets, costs and the measures it will see.
Related DHA 731 sample papers
Other DHA 731 week samples
- DHA 731 Week 1: Population Health for Leaders
- DHA 731 Week 2: Applying Epidemiologic Measures
- DHA 731 Week 3: Evaluating Study Designs and Evidence
- DHA 731 Week 4: Using Surveillance Data
- DHA 731 Week 5: Projecting Population Health Needs
- DHA 731 Week 6: Resource Allocation Decisions
- DHA 731 Week 7: Emerging Epidemic Analysis
More DHA sample papers
- DHA 711 Week 8: System Recommendations
- DHA 715 Week 8: Integrated Risk Management Plan
- DHA 721 Week 8: Economic Policy Analysis
- DHA 722 Week 8: Innovative Care Delivery Model
DHA 731 Week 8 questions, answered
What does DHA/731 Week 8 usually ask for?
The final population health paper commonly asks for a prioritized population health recommendation that integrates data, evidence, projections and allocation principles with governance, resources and measures.
Where can I find a free DHA 731 Week 8 sample paper?
Read the full population health recommendation above at no cost; notes link each priority to its evidence. Tell us which population your plan covers, and the first draft is on us.
Does spending on social services improve health?
A study of US states from 2000 to 2009 found that states with a higher ratio of social service and public health spending to Medicare and Medicaid spending had better subsequent outcomes on seven health measures.
What are the social determinants of health?
The everyday conditions of people's lives, from housing and work to schooling and neighborhoods, with income, assets and education increasingly seen as root causes behind many health outcomes.
How should a health system choose population health priorities?
By combining data on burden and need, evidence on what works, the organization's ability to act with partners and principles of fairness, and by limiting priorities to a few with clear measures.
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