| Course | HCD 420 Population Health Management |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Writing workshop draft |
| Length | About 451 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Arizona State University |
| Program | BS in Health Care Administration and Policy |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCD 420 Module 2
Who, Where and When: The Descriptive Epidemiology of Measles in the United States
Student Name
BS in Health Care Administration and Policy, Arizona State University
HCD 420: Population Health Management
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Who, Where and When: The Descriptive Epidemiology of Measles in the United States
Purpose of This Section
Sorting cases by who, where and when is the first step an epidemiologist takes, because the patterns it reveals point toward causes and targets. This section applies those three dimensions to measles in the United States, using national surveillance reports and an outbreak investigation from New York City.
Person
Measles in the United States is now mostly a disease of unvaccinated children. Of 338 cases reported from January 2020 through March 2024, half involved children aged 3 or younger, and 309 patients had no documented vaccination (Mathis et al., 2024). In the New York City outbreak of 2018-2019, 81% of the 649 patients were 18 or younger and almost 86% of those with a known history were unvaccinated (Zucker et al., 2020). Age matters because young children are both the group most likely to be due for vaccination and the group most at risk of complications, such as pneumonia, which affected nearly 6% of patients in that outbreak.
Place
Measles clusters where vaccination clusters low. In 2019, outbreaks in New York City and elsewhere in New York State accounted for three quarters of national cases (Patel et al., 2019). Within the city, nearly three quarters of patients lived in one area, Williamsburg in Brooklyn (Zucker et al., 2020). Place also includes travel: the New York City outbreak began when an unvaccinated child returned from Israel with measles. National data on kindergarten exemptions show that some states and counties carry much higher risk than others (Seither et al., 2024).
Time
Time trends show that measles risk rises and falls with importations, vaccination coverage and the speed of response. The quiet pandemic years coincided with sharply reduced international travel, and CDC's response to the 2024 rise stressed vaccination before travel abroad and higher coverage in close-knit, undervaccinated communities (Mathis et al., 2024), at a time when kindergarten coverage was falling (Seither et al., 2024).
| Period | Pattern | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 1,249 cases by October 1, the most since 1992 | Patel et al. (2019) |
| 2020-2023 | Far fewer cases; longest chain of transmission 63 days | Mathis et al. (2024) |
| First quarter 2024 | 97 cases, a seventeenfold rise over the 2020-2023 first-quarter average | Mathis et al. (2024) |
What the Pattern Tells a Planner
Person data point to young children who miss doses on time. Place data point to specific communities and counties rather than the nation as a whole. Time data point to the value of acting before travel seasons and to the danger of declining coverage. Together they suggest that prevention should be targeted, timely and community-based, which is the direction the policy proposals in the first workshop already took.
References
Mathis, A. D., Raines, K., Masters, N. B., Filardo, T. D., Kim, G., Crooke, S. N., Bankamp, B., Rota, P. A., & Sugerman, D. E. (2024). Measles: United States, January 1, 2020-March 28, 2024. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 73(14), 295-300. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7314a1
Patel, M., Lee, A. D., Clemmons, N. S., Redd, S. B., Poser, S., Blog, D., Zucker, J. R., Leung, J., Link-Gelles, R., Pham, H., Arciuolo, R. J., Rausch-Phung, E., Bankamp, B., Rota, P. A., Weinbaum, C. M., & Gastañaduy, P. A. (2019). National update on measles cases and outbreaks: United States, January 1-October 1, 2019. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 68(40), 893-896. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6840e2
Seither, R., Yusuf, O. B., Dramann, D., Calhoun, K., Mugerwa-Kasujja, A., Knighton, C. L., Kriss, J. L., Miller, R., & Peacock, G. (2024). Coverage with selected vaccines and exemption rates among children in kindergarten: United States, 2023-24 school year. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 73(41), 925-932. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7341a3
Zucker, J. R., Rosen, J. B., Iwamoto, M., Arciuolo, R. J., Langdon-Embry, M., Vora, N. M., Rakeman, J. L., Isaac, B. M., Jean, A., Asfaw, M., Hawkins, S. C., Merrill, T. G., Kennelly, M. O., Maldin Morgenthau, B., Daskalakis, D. C., & Barbot, O. (2020). Consequences of undervaccination: Measles outbreak, New York City, 2018-2019. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(11), 1009-1017. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1912514
Reading the HCD 420 Module 2 assignment instructions
Writing Workshop #2 falls in Module 7, the module on person, place and time in epidemiological data and surveillance. The posted objective asks students to assess person, place and time characteristics as features of understanding a disease or condition, scoring 80% on the rubric; a Playposit assessment in the same module asks for the definitions themselves. The workshop is not a list of statistics. Use each dimension to say something about who is at risk and why, and keep the condition you chose in the first workshop. Surveillance reports from the CDC and state health departments are the best sources for this section, and an outbreak investigation can give place data at the neighborhood level.
Inside the HCD 420 Module 2 example
Built around the three dimensions, the sample opens with a short purpose statement and then gives each dimension its own section. Person covers age and vaccination status with figures from national data and an outbreak investigation. Place moves from state to neighborhood and adds travel importation. Time is set out in a compact table with sources, followed by an interpretation of why counts rose and fell. A closing section turns the three patterns into planning implications and connects them to the first workshop's policies, which keeps the cumulative paper coherent. The person section also notes why the age pattern matters clinically, since descriptive data are only useful when tied to risk.
Where the marks sit in the HCD 420 Module 2 rubric
Each workshop is graded on its Canvas rubric, and the stated target is 80%. Descriptive epidemiology drafts are typically credited for accurate definitions applied correctly, current and credible data for each dimension, interpretation that explains what each pattern means, attention to subgroups at higher risk and clear citation of surveillance sources. Drafts lose credit when they present numbers without interpretation, when data are outdated or uncited, when "place" is treated only as a country and when the section does not connect to the condition and policies chosen earlier. Clear tables with sources, as in the sample, are also easy for graders to check.
HCD 420 Module 2 help with common mistakes
Look for at least one source that gives data below the national level, such as a state report or an outbreak study, so your place section has depth. Report the period your data cover, since figures change quickly. For each dimension, end with a sentence on what it implies for prevention. Keep a running list of your figures and sources for the final paper. The desk can help you find surveillance data for your condition if you are stuck. Rates matter as much as counts, so where you can, give cases per population or the share of a group affected, which Module 8 on crude, specific and adjusted rates will help you do.
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 Arizona State University 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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HCD 420 Module 2 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HCD 420 Module 2 sample paper?
A full HCD 420 Module 2 sample is on this page: a writing workshop describing measles in the United States by person, place and time.
What are person, place and time in epidemiology?
They are the organizing questions of descriptive work: which people a condition strikes, in which locations and in what periods or trends.
Who gets measles in the United States now?
Mostly young children without vaccination; from 2020 to early 2024, half of patients were toddlers or preschoolers aged 3 or under.
When does Writing Workshop 2 come in HCD 420?
Module 7, the module on person, place and time in epidemiological data and surveillance.
Why did measles cases rise in 2024?
CDC tied its response to importations and undervaccinated communities, urging vaccination before international travel and rapid investigation of suspected cases.