Responses

Heart disease was the death cause I selected for Module 4; it has the peculiar property that it can be caused by a number of different factors rather than just one single one, which makes it a potentially lethal cause of death. Additionally, a number of risk factors, including high blood pressure, a family history of the condition, excessive cholesterol, and others, might increase the likelihood of developing heart disease.

According to Ventriglio, Belllomo, and Bhugra (2016), the web of causation is a model that considers "complex precursors to each component of the chain, and these may...overlap and may have further complex interactions," and it illustrates the various potential interventions that can be used to prevent and control disease (Friis & Sellers, 2014). Heart disease is a complex disease in that there are differences based on age, sex/gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic differences, urban/rural differences, and others. This is especially true when it comes to the relationship between risk factors and outcomes associated with heart disease, which may be more so than other common infectious diseases. One of the three key risk factors is present in about 47% of Americans. Smoking, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure. For members of most racial and ethnic groups in the US, including African Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Hispanics, and white men, heart disease is the top cause of death. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Pacific Islander, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hispanic women (CDC, 2019). Additionally, these racial groups have a high risk of developing diabetes, are frequently physically inactive, have high levels of stress, and have low incomes. The structural, economic, and social imbalances that these groups are most susceptible to increase the hazards brought on by these combinations of risk variables. Despite advancements in prevention and treatment, studies have shown that the long-lasting impacts of inequality that continue to this day remain a major cause of mortality and morbidity among these groups (Mitka, 2004). When compared to more affluent communities, these individuals frequently live in urban districts and low-income communities that frequently struggle with a lack of infrastructure, protection, increased pollution, and physical space (Mitka, 2004). Compared to urban areas, rural towns frequently have a considerably bigger senior population and lack access to services, supermarkets, and healthful foods. They also frequently have fewer health care providers and hospitals (CDC, 2019).

There are nine principles in Hill's criteria for causal inference that might help build epidemiological proof of a connection between a hypothesized cause and an observed effect. Strength, consistency, specificity, timing, biological gradient, plausibility, coherence, experiment, and analogy are some of these concepts (Fedak, Bernal, Capshaw, & Gross, 2015). The hill criteria argues that in the case of strength, a small association does not rule out the possibility of a causal effect, while the likelihood of a causal effect increases with the size of the association. Although statistics show that minority groups will eventually outnumber white Americans in population by 2060 despite the fact that heart disease affects racial minorities disproportionately compared to white Americans, by just a little percentage (1%), as the country continues to become more diverse (Lackland, 2014). If lifestyle modifications and greater awareness of this disease are promoted, the number of deaths among minorities may increase by more than 10% in the coming decades (Lackland, 2014). The use of high-calorie meals (which are simply less expensive to buy and more full) might result in high blood pressure or high cholesterol, 2 important risk factors for heart disease later in life, because these minority groups are frequently low-income. Given that approximately 30-45 percent of minority groups experience high blood pressure, this suggests that there is a substantial correlation between a risk factor like high blood pressure and heart disease (Lackland, 2014). Influenza exposure occurs before the outcome (death), which in this situation is reasonable given the wealth of research because the exposure is linked to the environmental, social, and economic inequalities that might eventually result in having the risk factors that can result in eventual mortality.