After completing this module, students will be able to:
· Access data from the American Community Survey.
· Examine population structure by age and gender.
· Use this information to understand older adult population trends.
· Apply quantitative data analysis to write a short report with
This assignment is suitable for courses in demography, economics, public
health, public policy, and sociology.
Students must integrate table results from the module into a report which
addresses (1) the aging of the U.S. population, (2) how the population
structure varies by gender, (3) the older adult population size and structure
for the two or three selected cities or counties in the Midwest, and (4) how
this information can be useful for health planning. For (4), students will
need to utilize library sources to obtain peer-reviewed articles which expand
upon the COVID-19 research article from this exercise.
In this applied learning lab assignment, students examine the changing
population structure of older adults in the U.S. from 1950 to 2016. Students
also explore this structure by gender. Next, students extend this brief
analysis by visiting the Census Reporter website to compare the older adult
population structure of two or three different cities or counties of interest
in the Midwest (based on the low food access and mortality from COVID-19
research article).
After working with the software and Census Reporter, students will write a
two-page report describing trends in population aging for the entire U.S. and
the two or three selected cities or counties. The cities or counties should
be selected after reading the research article. Students with advanced
training in public health or social sciences should extend this analysis to
further examine population aging issues with respect to health services
planning with respect to COVID-19.
Please require students to read the research article before
working on the module.
The SSDAN WebCHIP software and the Census Reporter website can be used to
enrich the applied learning component in any public health or social science
course at the undergraduate level. In this exercise, students will first read
an article on low food access and mortality from COVID-19 in the Midwest area
of the United States (U.S.). Next, students will explore how the American
Community Survey (ACS) trend data from 2016 can be used to examine the
changing population structure of older adults by age and gender. After
viewing national trends, students will visit the Census Reporter website to
better understand the population structure by age for various counties or
cities in the Midwest. This information can be used for a wide range of
applications relating to planning for older adult services: emergency
assistance during disasters, constructing health facilities, determining
locations for public use amenities, identifying new transportation routes,
etc.