| Course | HCA 205 Principles of Health and Disease |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Disease principles paper |
| Length | About 1,086 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Health Care Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HCA 205 Module 1
Why People Get Sick and What Can Be Done Earlier: Principles of Disease and Prevention
Student Name
Health Care Administration Program, Aspen University
HCA 205: Principles of Health and Disease
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Why People Get Sick and What Can Be Done Earlier: Principles of Disease and Prevention
Every disease covered in a survey of body systems follows a few shared principles. Diseases have causes, some people are at higher risk than others, and there are points along the way where illness can be prevented, caught early or kept from getting worse. For health care administrators, these principles shape decisions about screening programs, staffing and budgets. This paper explains how diseases are classified by cause, distinguishes kinds of risk factors and describes the three levels of prevention, using a composite patient as a thread.
What Disease Means
Disease is a change in the structure or function of the body that produces signs, which others can observe, and symptoms, which the patient reports. Some diseases are acute, starting suddenly and lasting a short time, like a urinary tract infection. Others are chronic, developing slowly and lasting years, like type 2 diabetes. The study of how a disease develops and progresses is called pathogenesis, and understanding it tells clinicians where to intervene.
Classifying Causes
Diseases can be grouped by their main cause. Infectious diseases are caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Genetic diseases arise from inherited or new changes in genes. Degenerative diseases reflect wear and aging of tissues, such as osteoarthritis. Immune diseases occur when the immune system attacks the body or overreacts to harmless substances. Environmental and lifestyle diseases are shaped by exposures such as tobacco, diet and inactivity. Many common diseases have several causes acting together.
A Composite Patient
Mr. H., a composite 56-year-old warehouse supervisor, has high blood pressure, smokes about ten cigarettes daily, has a waist size that places him in the obese range and has a father who had a heart attack at 60. He has never had a colonoscopy. His profile touches almost every principle in this paper.
Risk Factors
A risk factor is anything that increases the chance of developing a disease. Non-modifiable risk factors cannot be changed: age, sex, family history and genetics. Mr. H.'s age and his father's early heart attack raise his cardiovascular risk. Modifiable risk factors can be changed: smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, excess weight, diet and physical inactivity. Mr. H. has at least three.
How Much Modifiable Factors Matter
The share of disease tied to modifiable factors can be large. In pooled data on more than 1.5 million people from 34 countries, five modifiable risk factors, high blood pressure, high non-HDL cholesterol, high body mass index, smoking and diabetes, accounted for 57.2% of 10-year cardiovascular disease incidence in women and 52.6% in men (Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium, 2023). Similar patterns appear outside the heart: a major commission on dementia listed 14 risk factors people can change at different ages, among them hypertension, smoking, physical inactivity and hearing loss (Livingston et al., 2024).
Levels of Prevention
Prevention works at three levels. The table shows each with an example from Mr. H.'s care.
| Level | Goal | Example for Mr. H. |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | Prevent disease before it starts | Stop smoking; control blood pressure; be active |
| Secondary | Find disease early, before symptoms | Colorectal cancer screening; blood sugar test |
| Tertiary | Limit harm from existing disease | Cardiac rehabilitation if he has a heart attack |
Primary Prevention
Primary prevention stops disease from beginning. For Mr. H., quitting smoking and lowering his blood pressure through medication, diet and activity would reduce his risk of heart attack and stroke. Vaccines are another form of primary prevention, protecting against infections such as influenza and pneumonia. Primary prevention is usually the least costly level, though its benefits are slow to appear and hard to see.
Secondary Prevention
Secondary prevention aims to catch disease while it is still silent and most treatable. Screening tests look for disease in people without symptoms. Colorectal cancer screening is advised for adults aged 45 to 75, and national figures showed that 31% of eligible adults were behind on screening in 2018 (US Preventive Services Task Force, 2021). Mr. H. is overdue. A blood sugar test to detect prediabetes or diabetes is another screening his clinic should offer.
Tertiary Prevention
Tertiary prevention limits damage once disease is present. If Mr. H. had a heart attack, cardiac rehabilitation, medications and follow-up would aim to prevent a second one and restore function. For chronic diseases such as diabetes, tertiary prevention includes foot and eye examinations to prevent complications.
Disease Statistics
Statistics describe how common diseases are and whom they affect. Incidence is the number of new cases in a period; prevalence is the number of existing cases at a point in time. Mortality is the rate of death from a disease. These measures guide planning: a clinic serving an older population with high diabetes prevalence needs more diabetes education and eye screening capacity than one serving young families.
Why Administrators Need These Principles
Administrators decide which prevention programs a practice offers, how screening reminders work and how staff time is allocated. Knowing that most cardiovascular risk is modifiable supports investment in smoking cessation and blood pressure programs. Knowing that screening rates lag supports outreach. The principles in this paper recur throughout the course as each body system is covered.
Social Conditions and Disease
Risk factors do not arise in a vacuum. Where people live and work, their income, education and access to healthy food and safe places to be active all shape their chances of smoking, gaining weight or going without screening. Mr. H. works long shifts and lives in a neighborhood with few grocery stores, which makes his modifiable risk factors harder to modify. Prevention programs that account for these conditions, such as evening clinic hours or mailed screening kits, reach more people.
Prevention Takes Time
Prevention's benefits appear years later, while its costs appear now, which makes it easy to neglect in busy practices. A smoker who quits today avoids a heart attack that would have happened a decade from now, and no one sees the event that did not occur. Measuring process steps such as screening rates helps a practice see its progress in the meantime.
Conclusion
Diseases can be classified by cause, and risk depends on factors that can and cannot be changed. For common chronic diseases, modifiable factors account for a large share of cases. Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention offer three chances to intervene. Mr. H. illustrates all of them: his smoking and blood pressure are targets for primary prevention, his missed screening is a gap in secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention waits if disease arrives.
References
Global Cardiovascular Risk Consortium. (2023). Global effect of modifiable risk factors on cardiovascular disease and mortality. New England Journal of Medicine, 389(14), 1273-1285. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2206916
Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Liu, K. Y., Costafreda, S. G., Selbæk, G., Alladi, S., Ames, D., Banerjee, S., Burns, A., Brayne, C., Fox, N. C., Ferri, C. P., Gitlin, L. N., Howard, R., Kales, H. C., Kivimäki, M., Larson, E. B., Nakasujja, N., Rockwood, K., . . . Mukadam, N. (2024). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission. The Lancet, 404(10452), 572-628. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01296-0
US Preventive Services Task Force. (2021). Screening for colorectal cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA, 325(19), 1965-1977. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.6238
HCA 205 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms
Aspen's catalog says HCA 205 presents the basic principles of human disease along with risk factors and prevention, and because the module's own wording is visible only after enrollment, that opening description shaped this sample. First assignments in a disease survey course often ask you to define disease, explain causes and risk factors and describe the levels of prevention with examples. Some prompts ask you to choose one disease and apply the principles to it. Read yours for the number of sources and whether a case or table is expected. Using one composite patient throughout, as this example does, helps keep abstract terms concrete and gives every section a shared reference point for the reader.
How the HCA 205 Module 1 example is put together
At roughly 1,080 words, the sample moves through fifteen headings and one table. It defines disease and classifies causes into infectious, genetic, degenerative, immune and environmental groups. A composite patient appears next, followed by sections on non-modifiable and modifiable risk factors with pooled cardiovascular data and dementia risk factors. The table sets out the three levels of prevention with an example for the patient, and each level then gets its own section. Later sections cover disease statistics, social conditions that shape risk, the slow payoff of prevention and why administrators need these principles. Margin notes explain the order of the paper and the choice of a screening gap as an example.
Reading the HCA 205 Module 1 grading rubric
Instructors grading a principles paper usually look for accurate definitions, clear examples, evidence and relevance to health care administration. Definitions here are brief and correct, from signs and symptoms to incidence and prevalence. Examples come from one patient, which makes each principle easy to follow. Evidence is drawn from a large pooled analysis, a major commission report and a national recommendation statement, all listed and cited in APA form. Relevance shows in the sections on statistics, social conditions and administrative decisions such as outreach and screening reminders. A paper that only defines terms without applying them tends to score lower than one that applies each term to a case. Clear section headings for each prevention level also help graders follow the structure quickly.
Common HCA 205 Module 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
A frequent weakness is defining prevention levels correctly but giving examples that belong to the wrong level; screening is secondary, not primary. Check each example against its definition. Students also list risk factors without separating those that can be changed from those that cannot. Another gap is leaving out numbers; one well-chosen statistic makes the case for prevention far better than general statements. Keep the patient consistent from start to finish. A tutor from our team can read your draft for misplaced prevention levels and unsupported claims before you hand it in. Finally, read your conclusion to confirm it returns to the patient you introduced.
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 Aspen 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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HCA 205 Module 1 questions, answered
What does HCA 205 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's HCA 205 description begins with the basic principles of human disease, risk factors and prevention, so a paper on those principles is a typical first assignment. Check your classroom prompt.
What is the difference between primary and secondary prevention?
Primary prevention stops disease before it starts, such as quitting smoking; secondary prevention finds disease early, such as screening tests.
What is the difference between incidence and prevalence?
Incidence counts new cases in a period; prevalence counts all existing cases at a point in time.
Where can I find a free HCA 205 Module 1 sample paper?
The complete disease principles paper is published above, with its prevention table and margin notes. It opens the eight HCA 205 samples on this site.
What are modifiable risk factors in HCA 205 Module 1?
Risk factors a person can change, such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, excess weight, diet and physical inactivity.