Built from census, vital records and model-based local estimates, MN505's Unit 7 profile describes one composite rural county and singles out the finding a promotion plan should target. Searches like "mn 505 unit 7 assignment example", "mn505 unit 7 sample" and "mn505 unit 7 example" land here.
Community Health Profile: Birch Ridge County, a Rural County of 23,600
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MN505: Epidemiology and Health Promotion
Unit 7 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Birch Ridge County and every figure in this profile are composites built from the types of public sources named. No real county's data are shown.
The Place
Birch Ridge County lies in the hill country of its state, with a population of about 23,600 according to American Community Survey five-year estimates (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024). It is older than the state: its median age is 46.1, and 21.9 percent of residents are 65 or older. Median household income is about $48,300. The county seat has a critical access hospital without obstetric services, so the nearest hospital that delivers babies is 41 miles away. Two federally qualified health center sites and one private family practice provide most primary care, and one of the health center sites offers prenatal care two days a week.
Social and Economic Determinants
Poverty: 16.2 percent of residents have incomes under the federal poverty line, against 12.4 percent statewide. Insurance: 9.8 percent of residents under 65 are uninsured, against 7.5 percent. Broadband: 74 percent of households have a broadband subscription, against 86 percent. Transportation: 6.1 percent of households have no vehicle, which matters in a county where prenatal care may require a 41-mile drive. Education: 13.4 percent of adults 25 and older have no high school diploma, against 9.9 percent. All figures come from American Community Survey five-year estimates, which carry margins of error that are wider in small counties.
Health Outcomes Table
Each row gives the county figure, the state figure, the source type, the years and a reliability note.
1. Adult current smoking: 23.8 percent against 15.1. Source: model-based small-area estimate (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). Years: 2022. Reliability: modeled, not measured locally.
2. Adult obesity: 38.4 percent against 34.9. Model-based estimate, 2022, modeled.
3. Diagnosed diabetes, adults: 13.1 percent against 11.0. Model-based estimate, 2022, modeled.
4. High blood pressure, adults: 36.9 percent against 32.4. Model-based estimate, 2021, modeled.
5. Adults without a routine checkup in the past year: 27.9 percent against 24.0. Model-based estimate, 2022, modeled.
6. Frequent mental distress, adults: 17.6 percent against 15.3. Model-based estimate, 2022, modeled.
7. Smoking during pregnancy: 17.3 percent of births against 6.8. Source: birth certificates. Years: 2019 to 2023 pooled. Reliability: counted, about 37 affected births a year among about 214 births, so pooled.
8. Low birth weight: 8.9 percent against 8.3. Birth certificates, 2019 to 2023 pooled, counted.
9. Teen birth rate: 24.1 against 17.8 per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19. Birth certificates, 2019 to 2023 pooled, counted.
10. Premature death, years of potential life lost before 75: 10,850 against 8,210 per 100,000. Death certificates, 2020 to 2022, counted.
11. Drug overdose deaths: 31 against 28 per 100,000. Death certificates, 2019 to 2023 pooled, small numbers.
12. Children under 19 without insurance: 5.9 percent against 4.8. American Community Survey five-year estimate, survey.
Birth data are available by county of residence from national vital statistics (National Center for Health Statistics, 2024), and county comparisons such as these are summarized in national ranking tools (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, 2025).
A Note on Small Numbers
Birch Ridge records only about 214 births a year, so about 37 births a year to mothers who smoked. A count of 37 can swing by 10 or more from one year to the next by chance alone, so the profile pools five years of birth certificates to give a rate stable enough to compare with the state. The same pooling was applied to teen births and overdose deaths. The model-based adult estimates are not affected by small numbers in the same way, but they describe what a statistical model predicts for a county with Birch Ridge's characteristics rather than what was measured there, and they should be read as estimates.
Community Assets
A profile that lists only problems misses the resources a plan would use. Birch Ridge has a health center with a prenatal clinic, a county health department with a nurse home visiting program for first-time mothers, a public library system with free internet access at four branches, and an active network of churches that already run food pantries. The county's WIC office sees most pregnant women with low incomes. The state tobacco quitline accepts referrals from any clinician and offers a pregnancy protocol. These assets matter for the priority chosen below, because a measure is more worth targeting when there are existing points of contact through which to reach the people affected.
Data Gaps
Three gaps limit the profile. Model-based estimates stand in for local measurement of adult behaviors, so the county has no direct survey of its own adults. Birth certificate smoking data rely on self-report at delivery, which tends to undercount smoking. And no source gives reliable county-level data on vaping during pregnancy, which may be replacing cigarette smoking among younger mothers. A local survey of prenatal patients would fill the last two gaps.
Choosing a Priority
Three tests were applied to the measures where Birch Ridge is worse than the state. First, the size of the gap: smoking during pregnancy is 2.5 times the state rate, the widest relative gap in the table; adult smoking is 1.6 times, teen births 1.4 times and premature death 1.3 times. Second, whether the local health system can reach the people affected: nearly every pregnant resident has at least one prenatal visit, and the health center's prenatal clinic sees most of them, so there is a point of contact. Third, whether the measure could show change within a plan's lifetime: smoking status is recorded on every birth certificate, so change could be tracked each year, even if the rate is pooled for comparison.
Smoking during pregnancy passes all three tests. Premature death, though worse than the state, fails the third: it reflects many causes over many years and would not show the effect of a two-year plan. Adult smoking passes the first and third tests but reaches a much wider population without a single point of contact.
Conclusion
Birch Ridge County is older, poorer and farther from obstetric care than its state. Of a dozen measures, smoking during pregnancy stands furthest from the state rate, reaches a population the county's prenatal clinic already sees and can be tracked annually from birth certificates. It is the finding a health promotion plan should target. The profile's assets, the prenatal clinic, WIC, home visiting and the state quitline, give such a plan several existing routes to the women it needs to reach.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). PLACES: Local data for better health. https://www.cdc.gov/places
National Center for Health Statistics. (2024). Natality data on CDC WONDER. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://wonder.cdc.gov/natality.html
University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. (2025). County health rankings and roadmaps. https://www.countyhealthrankings.org
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). American Community Survey 5-year estimates. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
How this MN505 Unit 7 example is structured
Place first, determinants second, outcomes third, priority last, so the finding at the end has context behind it. Every table row names its source type, because a model-based estimate, a survey figure and a count from vital records carry different kinds of uncertainty, and the profile says which is which. Small numbers get their own paragraph. Roughly 37 smoking pregnancies a year is a count that swings from one year to the next, so the profile pools five years and says so. The priority section uses three tests: size of the gap with the state, whether the local health system can reach the people affected, and whether the measure could show change within a plan's lifetime. Smoking during pregnancy passes all three, while premature death, though worse than the state, fails the third.
Get an MN505 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Your county, city or neighborhood will have its own tables, and the profile follows them. Tell us which place your Unit 7 prompt names, along with the rubric and any required sources. The free first custom sample is drafted to those instructions within 24-48h, every figure dated and sourced, with one finding argued as the priority. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
MN505 Unit 7 questions, answered
Why pool several years of birth data instead of reporting the latest year?
Because a county with about 214 births a year produces unstable single-year percentages. A handful of births in either direction can move the figure by several points, which could look like progress or decline that is really noise. Pooling five years steadies the estimate at the cost of timeliness. State vital statistics offices often publish pooled county figures for exactly this reason.
Are CDC PLACES estimates real local measurements?
They are model-based estimates, produced by combining national survey responses with local demographic data to predict prevalence for small areas. They are useful where no local survey exists, but they are not direct counts, and they can miss local conditions the model does not capture. A strong profile uses them and labels them, rather than presenting them as if residents had been surveyed.
How many measures should a community profile include?
Enough to describe the place fairly, usually a dozen or so across demographics, determinants and outcomes, and not so many that the priority gets lost. The example keeps its main table to one page. Measures that do not bear on any plausible priority can move to an appendix. What matters more than the count is that each measure is sourced, dated and compared.