Joseph Graves
HS 404
WEEK 6 ASSIGNMENT
10/6/11
II. WEEK 6 ASSIGNMENT: Directions:
1. Refer back to Table 4-2, p. 67, which presents characteristics of infants who were exclusively breastfed.
Describe the results shown in the table. Suppose you wanted to conduct a survey of breastfeeding in
your community:
“The table indicates that approximately 30% of infants in the United States are breastfed exclusively through three
months of age and that the percentage drops to about 11% through the age of six months (Friis, 2010).” African
American mothers engage in breastfeeding less often than any other ethnic groups. Also among African American
mothers that where less than twenty years of age and unmarried had a lower breast feeding number. Infants from
families with lower income levels were breastfed less than infants from families with higher income levels. These
where just a few of the results from the Table 4-2, p.67.
a. How would you choose participants?
If I wanted to conduct a survey of breastfeeding in my community the direct participants would be females of course. I
would send a questionnaire survey to all households in the community in order not to miss any one.
b. What questionnaire items would you include in the survey?
The characteristics in the survey would include the following: Demographic, sex of child, ethnicity of child, age of
mother at child’s birth, education, marital status, and residence of central or non central city, annual income
2. Refer back to Table 4-3, pp. 70-71, which gives the percentage of adults who reported insufficient rest or
sleep.
a. Provide a detailed account of the findings presented in the table.
The following states where the unweighted sample size for the percentage of adults who reported insufficient rest or
sleep. Some characteristics of the study included age, ethnicity, sex, educational level, and employment. The
following findings were presented in the table; Delaware had the highest amount of days missed sleep of 12.2-16.0 in a
thirty day window. According to age group the 18-34 year olds missed on average 13.3 days of sleep. I thought for
sure it would be the Caucasians with all their multi tasking when it came to ethnicity, but the finding from this study
suggest that Hispanics miss on average 11.6 days of sleep. I thought for sure it that men would miss more sleep than
women, but once again I was wrong. Women on average missed 10-12.6 days o sleep. Employment status suggests
that people unable to work missed out on on sleep the most, about 19.6-30.8 days out of thirty. The last findings took
in consideration education level and people with a high school diploma or GED only had an average of 10-14 days of
lack of sleep.
b. What additional information would you like to have in order to determine the reasons why people have
insufficient rest or sleep?
I would like to see what medications are taken by the people in the study and also the amount of or lack of exercise
among these individuals.
3. The prevalence of hypertension has remained essentially unchanged for nearly a decade (see:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus10.pdf#066 . Propose a descriptive epidemiological study to explore the
reasons for this phenomenon.
I feel a comprehensive population based survey directed toward prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension in the United
States would be the way to start. The characteristics of the study would consist of the following items: State, age,
ethnicity, sex, active or non active lifestyle, eating habits, past medical history. Overall I think the underline problem is
lack of exercise and proper diet amongst most Americans. I remember reading an article awhile back that stated that if
trends continue 75% of Americans will be obese by 2015.
Resources:
Friis, R. (2010). Epidemiology 101. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning.Retrieved from www.jblearning.com