Title: Terry L' Richardson, PhD, MPA,
1ASSESSING MATERNAL AND INFANT MORTALITY USING
GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND OTHER NON-TRADITIONAL
TECHNIQUES IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT
- Terry L. Richardson, PhD, MPA,
- Leslie Lawson, MPH, MPA
- Neal Rosenblatt, MS
- Melinda G. Rowe, MD, MPH
2Community Assessment and Planning Project (CAPP)
- The Jefferson County Health Department joined
forces with the County Department for Human
Services in an initiative to assess the health of
the community. This assessment planning
project was coordinated by the two departments
and included an array of community stakeholders. - In June, Jefferson County Fiscal Court provided
50,000 for the endeavor for the 1996-1997 Fiscal
Year. - The Alliant Health System Community Health Trust
provided supplemental funding.
3Why Community Assessment?
- Identifies strengths and concerns.
- Engages citizens as resources and stakeholders.
- Promotes shared responsibility.
- Creates a snapshot of where we are today.
- Leads to prioritization and action planning.
4Phase I Create a Snap-Shot(completed July
1997)
- Training and leadership development
- Identified, sought, and collected data
- Analyzed data by Neighborhood Place areas
- Published Community Profile of Jefferson County
and poster
5Methods
- The assessment project enlisted quantitative as
well as qualitative data collection approaches. - Quantitative data was compiled from a variety of
sources - Qualitative data gathered through a community
engagement process - Geographical analysis of case level data was
employed to subdivide the county into ten
assessment areas for comparison and analysis
purposes.
6Results
- Final product of the assessment part of the
project was a Community Profile - Neighborhood Place Councils, made up of persons
who live or work in the service area, determined
priorities for each area based on reviews of this
data and other information. - The overall findings highlight the advantages of
creatively implementing data from a variety of
sources to supplement traditional data.
7Community Profile of Jefferson County, Kentucky
8(No Transcript)
9Chapters of the Profile
- Who are we?
- Where do we live?
- What is our social and economic well being?
- How safe are we?
- How healthy are we?
- How are we educating ourselves for the future?
- What is the community saying?
10How healthy are we?
11Low Birthweight Babies (2500 Grams of Less) as a
Percent of Total Live Births
12An Example of Employing GIS Analysis in Further
Assessment and Program Development Activities
13We start with a question
- Within the Healthy Start area, how many children
under the age of two years are presently living
in dwellings that have been cited for lead hazard
violation(s)?
14(No Transcript)
15(No Transcript)
16(No Transcript)
17(No Transcript)
18Phase II Prioritization(completed July 1998)
- Each Council/staff group reviewed and discussed
information in the Profile - Each Council/staff group prioritized issues based
on the following criteria - The issues were significant to their area
- Community efforts need to be improved to address
the issues - Addressing the issue is consistent with the
Neighborhood Place Mission and Vision - The Neighborhood Place is likely to impact the
issue positively with existing resources.
19- Issues Listed Most Frequently by Councils
- Low school attendance rates and dropouts
- Poverty and sustaining jobs
- Unfavorable pregnancy outcomes
20Unfavorable Pregnancy Outcomes
- Infant mortality/low birthweight babies/ drinking
during pregnancy - Initiation of prenatal care
- Birthrate among teens, and its relationship to
appropriate recreational/educational activities - Low birthweight babies born to females under the
age of 14, and the need to enhance prenatal,
nutritional and education services to this group.
21CAPP Phase III Action Planning
- Conduct additional data analysis, so that each
group can possibly refine its recommendations
(for example, determine specific target
populations by age, neighborhood, gender,
ethnicity, etc.) - Continue training all participants
- Create a cross-site work group around each of the
three adopted issues and identify stakeholders to
participate in planning actions
22Conclusions
- Whereas county-level data has been traditionally
used as a factor in deciding local public health
policy and program interventions, this research
expands on this factor by investigating health
disparities across geographic areas within an
urban environment. - Comprehensive statistical methods in community
health planning and assessment activities are
valuable in establishing local public health
priorities.
23Public Policy Implications
- As a result of such sub-level analyses,
Neighborhood Place Community Councils, the Board
of Health and other policy or advisory boards,
are better able to respond to the communitys
health, education, and human service needs. - Another important implication found in this
research is in the importance of involving
community members as partners in such a process.
24Thank You