conducting research

By now I hope you realize that week by week we are addressing all of the PEEEL disciplines. Please keep the discipline for a specific in mind when you complete the discussion and assignments.This week we look further into the economic discipline. Think about a policy to increase the cigarette excise tax. Will there be a cost to the government to implement such a policy? How much will it increase tax revenue? Will it decrease health care spending on tobacco-related illness? What could be the impact be on the tobacco retail business? All of these questions need to be considered when analyzing a policy. As public health professionals, our primary concern is obviously health. But a legislator’s concern may be business or government resources. To effectively implement policy, we need to address the concerns that stakeholders have, and sometimes that concern is the fiscal impact.

Imagine that you are the director of a local health department. To disseminate important information about your public health issue and to underline the need for policy and advocacy efforts, you decide to write a letter to the editor of a journal specific to your topic.

Aptly titled, “Letters to the Editor,” these journal sections provide multidisciplinary professionals the opportunity to increase awareness and influence opinion in support of or opposition to other studies and articles that have been featured in the journal. For this part of your Scholar-Practitioner Project, you compose a letter to a journal of your choosing.

To prepare for this project component, review Chapter 20 of the course text, carefully following the guidelines for writing a letter to the editor. As indicated in the guidelines, identify no more than five scholarly, peer-reviewed resources to support your letter. Then, conduct research to determine which scholarly journal aligns to the issue you selected for your Scholar-Practitioner Project.

Discussion

After reviewing Chapter 3 of your text, conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis on the one current and one alternative intervention identified in your “Conducting Research”assignment for your Scholar Practitioner Project (you submitted this in Week 4). Make sure you address the three questions asked in the instructions: How economically feasible is the intervention? What are the long-term savings of the intervention? How do the potential health outcomes outweigh the costs of the intervention?

Note: For the purposes of this assignment, you are not required to submit this letter to the journal.

By Day 7 of Week 6, submit an approximately 300-word letter to the editor that addresses the following:

• Identify the journal for which you would submit your letter.
• State your position and highlight its novelty.
• Critique the merits of the public health issue.
• Provide recommendations for addressing the public health issue.

Be sure to reference three to five scholarly articles in your letter.