This presentation will provide a description of a set of health status measures to assess a tribal community of 1000–5000 members. The instrument is intended to provide the “average” Indian community with a feasible method of assessing its overall health status, and monitoring that health status over time. The Profile is based on the premise that health is created at the community level for American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs). However, measures of health currently available to AI/ANs are applicable only at the regional and national levels. This Profile differs from previous sets of health status measures in several ways. First, it was designed to be a proxy for overall health status rather than a collection of morbidity and mortality measures. Second, it covers multiple domains including medical, mental health, dental, educational, and social indicators. Third, because the Profile was designed to be useful at the community level, it was NOT designed to generate standardized data for large area analysis. Finally, instead of trying to cover all the important measures of health, the Profile contains only 15 measures, which are sentinels of health status in each health domain. The Profile is only a model: It is recommended that communities implement each of the indicators, though they may decide to add, delete, or modify the indicators to meet their particular local needs. The presentation will also describe the recruitment process for three to five pilot sites, including selection criteria, community participation, and technical assistance needs of the community.
Learning Objectives: 1. Participants will be able to understand the need to assess the overall health status of an "average" Indian community. 2. Participants will become familiar with medical, mental health, dental, educational and social indicators. 3. Participants will gain some insight of community participation in identifying and implementing their own health indicators
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.