Question

1. Perform a basic root cause analysis of one of the following public health problems: opioid misuse, partner violence, adverse childhood events, tobacco use, alcohol misuse, or child abuse.

2. Identify two determinants of health that you believe have an impact on the problem that you performed the root cause analysis on. Do not identify broad categories of determinants--be specific. Explain why you believe these determinants of health impact health outcome. Support your answer with facts from external resources.

Answer 1

1). Alcohol misuse:

In the United States (US), substance abuse is a general problem, 22.5 million Americans of above 11 years age are diagnosed with substance abuse, the need to focus on specific population is increasing in this scenario. The onset of alcoholism and other drug problems occurs at an earlier age in African-Americans in comparison to whites.

The following patterns of drug and alcohol use among the African –Americans was reported by SAMHSA based on its National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2014.

• 3% of African-Americans reported alcohol consumption in the past 30 days compared with 22.8% of the whole population
• 6% of African-Americans of age 12 years and above reported consumption of binge (drinking five or more drinks in one sitting) in the past month, compared to 23% of total US population
• 5% of African-Americans of underage reported drinking binge compared with 13.8% of the nation as a whole
• 4% of African-Americans of age 12 years and above reported illicit drug use in the past 30 days compared with 10.2% of the whole population.

The data is indicating that the exposure to alcohol drinking parents from the childhood, availability of the alcohol, and family background are the primary triggers of the alcohol abuse.