| Course | HLTH 4343 Health and Wellness Across Populations |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Social determinants of health analysis |
| Length | 1,190 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | B.S. in Healthcare Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 4343 Module 2
Diabetes at 110 Degrees: The Social Determinants Behind the Diabetes Burden Among Adults in Imperial County, California, Read Through the Healthy People 2030 Domains
Student Name
American College of Education
HLTH4343: Health and Wellness Across Populations
Module 2 Assignment
Instructor Name
October 12, 2026
From Prevalence to Causes
The population health profile I prepared in Module 1 showed that about one adult in seven in Imperial County, California, has diagnosed diabetes, compared with fewer than one in ten in neighboring San Diego County (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2025). A prevalence figure describes a problem but does not explain it. This paper asks why the burden is so high, focusing on the conditions in which the county's adults live and work rather than on individual choices alone.
Braveman and Gottlieb (2014) describe the social determinants of health as the factors apart from medical care that can be influenced by social policies and that shape health powerfully, and they argue that socioeconomic factors such as income, wealth and education are fundamental causes of a wide range of health outcomes. That view matters for a health center network planning diabetes services, because it suggests that clinical programs will reach only part of the problem unless they account for the conditions that produce it. I organize the analysis using the five domains of social determinants set out in Healthy People 2030: economic stability; education access and quality; the neighborhood and its built environment; the social and community context in which people live; and, as a fifth domain, health care access and quality (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [ODPHP], n.d.).
Economic Stability
Economic stability is the domain where Imperial County differs most from the state. The American Community Survey's 2024 estimates place 19.6% of residents below the poverty line, against 11.8% across California, and the county's median household income is about 61% of the state's (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025). Much of the county's work is seasonal agricultural labor, which brings irregular income and months without work.
The PLACES estimates show how economic strain reaches the household. Nearly a third of adults, 31.3%, report food insecurity, 25.5% report housing insecurity, and 28.7% received food stamp benefits in the past year (CDC, 2025). For a person with diabetes, these figures translate into daily trade-offs. Managing blood glucose requires steady access to affordable, healthy food, medications and testing supplies, and a household that runs short at the end of each month may buy the cheapest calories available and stretch or skip medications. Advice to eat more vegetables means little in a month when the question is whether there will be enough to eat at all.
Education, Language and Health Literacy
Education shapes health through employment and income and through the skills people use to manage complex conditions. In Imperial County, the educational domain is closely tied to language. Roughly one resident in three is a Spanish speaker with limited English, a rate about triple California's, and health information, forms and instructions are still often produced first in English. Diabetes self-management asks a great deal of written and numerical literacy: reading food labels, adjusting doses, interpreting glucose readings. A patient who receives these instructions in a language they do not read comfortably is being asked to manage a demanding condition with half the tools.
Among the sociocultural contributors to diabetes in U.S. Hispanic communities, one review lists limited educational opportunity, and the same authors argue that self-management teaching works best when it is shaped around patients' culture (Aguayo-Mazzucato et al., 2019). The implication for the network is that Spanish-language, plain-language education is not a translation task added at the end but a design requirement from the start.
Health Care Access and Quality
Among adults aged 18 to 64 in the county, 22.2% have no health insurance, against 8.7% next door in San Diego County (CDC, 2025). Lack of coverage delays diagnosis and interrupts treatment, and for diabetes, whose complications build silently over years, delay is costly. Even insured patients face limits. The county has few specialists, so patients referred to an endocrinologist, retinal specialist or podiatrist often travel to San Diego or wait months. Some residents with family ties across the border seek care or buy medications in Mexicali, which can reduce cost but can also fragment records and make it harder for clinicians on either side to see the whole picture. This domain is the one most within a health center's control, and Module 3 will examine it in detail.
Neighborhood, Built Environment and Heat
The physical environment in Imperial County includes a factor that planners elsewhere rarely consider: extreme heat. Summer temperatures regularly pass 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which limits safe outdoor activity for much of the year and places agricultural workers under heavy heat stress. Heat matters for diabetes in a direct way. Kenny et al. (2016) review evidence that people with diabetes have an impaired capacity to dissipate heat, including lower skin blood flow and sweating responses, which puts them at greater risk of heat-related illness during heat waves and physical activity, especially when glucose control is poor or complications are present.
Heat therefore does double damage. It discourages the physical activity that helps prevent and control diabetes, contributing to the 35.1% of adults who report no leisure-time activity, and it endangers people who already have the disease, particularly those who work outdoors. Getting around is a further obstacle, since roughly one adult in six in the county says an unreliable ride has cost them a medical visit or other necessities (CDC, 2025). In a large county with long distances between towns, a missed ride can mean a missed visit and a lapsed prescription.
Social and Community Context
The social domain includes both strengths and strains. Families in the county are often large and close, and many households span generations, which can provide practical support such as rides and help with meals. Churches and community organizations are active, and many residents move easily between communities on both sides of the border. At the same time, the PLACES estimates suggest real isolation: 38.2% of adults report loneliness and 31.2% report lacking social and emotional support (CDC, 2025). Immigration status concerns may make some residents wary of any institution, including health centers. A diabetes program built on this context should use the county's strengths, such as family involvement and trusted community messengers, while offering support to people who have neither.
What the Analysis Means for Services
Viewed through the five domains, the county's diabetes burden looks less like a failure of individual behavior and more like a predictable result of low and unstable income, language barriers, limited coverage and specialist supply, extreme heat and uneven social support. The network cannot change most of these conditions, but it can design around them. That means screening patients with diabetes for food and housing insecurity and connecting them to benefits, offering education in Spanish at the right literacy level, scheduling around harvest seasons and the hottest months, planning for transportation, and involving family members where patients wish. It also means acknowledging that the causes of the causes, as Braveman and Gottlieb (2014) call them, require partners beyond health care, such as food banks, employers and county agencies, and that a health center's role includes advocating for policies that address them.
References
Aguayo-Mazzucato, C., Diaque, P., Hernandez, S., Rosas, S., Kostic, A., & Caballero, A. E. (2019). Understanding the growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes in the Hispanic population living in the United States. Diabetes/Metabolism Research and Reviews, 35(2), Article e3097. https://doi.org/10.1002/dmrr.3097
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]. https://data.cdc.gov/
Kenny, G. P., Sigal, R. J., & McGinn, R. (2016). Body temperature regulation in diabetes. Temperature, 3(1), 119-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/23328940.2015.1131506
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (n.d.). Social determinants of health. Healthy People 2030, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-of-health
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2024: Tables B17001 and B19013 [Data set].
HLTH 4343 Module 2 instructions, in plain terms
HLTH 4343 Module 2 often asks you to explain a health problem in one population through its social determinants rather than individual behavior alone. Prompts usually want you to name the population and the problem, choose a framework such as the Healthy People 2030 domains or the World Health Organization's model, analyze each relevant determinant with current data, and explain what the analysis means for health services. Some versions ask you to continue with the population from Module 1, which saves time and builds depth. Graders generally expect about four APA 7 pages built on data sources and at least one scholarly article. Look in Canvas to see if a particular framework is required or number of determinants.
How this HLTH 4343 Module 2 example is built
This sample picks up where the Module 1 profile left off and turns a prevalence figure into a question of causes. It defines social determinants from a scholarly review and adopts the Healthy People 2030 domains as its structure, giving each domain its own section. Economic stability is traced into the daily trade-offs of managing diabetes on a tight budget. Education is tied to language and health literacy, with a design implication. Access, environment and social context follow, including a determinant specific to the place, extreme heat, supported by a physiology review. The final section pulls the domains together and separates what a health center can design around from what requires partners and policy.
HLTH 4343 Module 2 rubric: what full marks look like
Most versions of this rubric reward accurate use of a determinants framework, strong local evidence and a clear link from conditions to health outcomes. The framework criterion wants each domain defined and applied, not simply named. The evidence criterion rewards current local data with sources and years, plus scholarly support for the mechanisms. Analysis usually counts for the largest share, and graders look for explanations of how a determinant produces an outcome, such as food insecurity leading to skipped medications. Many rubrics also reward respectful description of populations and attention to strengths. As in other modules, organization and APA 7 accuracy, including data set citations, finish the grade.
Common HLTH 4343 Module 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Determinants papers commonly lose points by listing factors like poverty and education without showing how each affects the specific health problem. Another weak spot is using national figures for a local population or data several years old. Some students slide into blaming the population's culture or choices, which graders read as a misunderstanding of the concept. Include at least one determinant that is specific to your place; generic lists look copied. Remember to say what the analysis means for services, since that is the purpose of the assignment. If you want a Module 2 analysis for your own county or group with its current data, the desk can build a custom version.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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HLTH 4343 Module 2 questions, answered
What does HLTH4343 Module 2 usually ask for?
In HLTH4343, the second module often centers on the social determinants of health for one population or group, explaining how conditions such as income, education, environment and access shape a health problem. Your classroom's instructions decide the group and framework.
What are the five Healthy People 2030 domains?
Economic stability, education access and quality, health care access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context.
How does heat affect people with diabetes?
Research reviews report that people with diabetes may lose heat less efficiently, with lower skin blood flow and sweating, which raises the risk of heat-related illness, especially with poor glucose control.
Where can I find a free HLTH 4343 Module 2 sample paper?
On this page. The complete Module 2 social determinants analysis for adults with diabetes in Imperial County is shown in full, with a note in the margin explaining each of its seven sections and every source listed at the end.
Should a social determinants paper include community strengths?
Yes. Describing assets such as family support and trusted organizations alongside needs gives a fairer picture and points to resources a program can build on.