After a five-year grassroots policy planning initiative sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Health, the Community Health Research Group conducted a roll-up evaluation of the Community Diagnosis Initiative to assess the effectiveness of the 95 county health councils’ needs assessment and problem prioritization. Prioritized county-level health problems were coded using the Healthy People 2010 focus areas, refined by emphasizing priorities ranked most important, and weighted according to rank. The analytic model combines county-level sociodemographic variables, health status variables, and local health council composition and process variables to identify correlates of prioritized health problems. Two-by-two contingency tables were constructed and Chi-Square tests, followed by odds ratios, were used to assess the magnitude and direction of the associations between measures. The planning process was found to be objective, scientific, and data-driven, despite the non-technical backgrounds of health council members, facilitated greatly by the use of an innovative custom query Web site (Health Information Tennessee, at server.to/hit) for data access. Health council composition, alcohol and other drug-related variables, poverty, and rurality were among the important correlates of priorities selected. The results of this analysis will assist in improving outcomes of other Tennessee bottom-up planning efforts. See server.to/hit
Learning Objectives: The objectives of this presentation are (1) to give participants a better understanding of the relationship between community grassroots health policy planning, the county-level sociodemographic and health status context of this planning, and the organizational characteristics of community health councils composed of community stakeholders; (2) to identify factors that contribute to effective health planning and needs assessment at the county level; and (3) to understand the value of using an interactive tool (the HIT Web site) for health problem identification.
Keywords: Community Health Planning,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Tennessee Department of Health
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.