The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #72625

David J Law, PhD¹, Peter Kane, MA¹, and Richard C. Urbano, PhD². (1) Bureau of Health Informatics, Tennessee Department of Health, Cordell Hull Bldg., 6th Floor, 425 Fifth Ave. North, Nashville, TN 37247, 615-253-4702, david.law@state.tn.us, (2) Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Health Informatics, Tennessee Department of Health, Cordell Hull Bldg., 6th Floor, 425 Fifth Ave. North, Nashville, TN 37247

The Tennessee Social Indicator Study is based on a public health model that focuses on the factors that protect or put adolescents at risk for substance abuse and other problem behaviors. According to the model, factors that protect and put adolescents at risk for substance abuse comprise four broad domains: community, family, school, and peer/individual. A hierarchical principal components analysis, using a set of 38 archival indicators collected for each of Tennessee’s 95 counties, was used to create five separate risk factors representing each of the four domains and overall risk. Correlations of the risk factors with problem behaviors such as juvenile drug arrests, violent crime, and teen pregnancy were also assessed. Overall, the factors predicted the problem behaviors with the community, family, and overall risk factors showing the greatest contributions. The higher correlations for the community and family factors may show the primacy of these early influences, whereas the overall factor shows the combined effect of all the four domains. Quartile rankings of the 95 counties’ risk levels were also generated for each of the risk factors. Subsequently, the data were used to create maps and subjected to geographic analyses. Metropolitan counties showed the highest risk levels and there were apparent clusters of the high and low risk counties that shared borders and common characteristics. Altogether these results support the validity and use of the risk factors in need assessments for prevention services for adolescent substance abuse and other problem behaviors.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to:
• Articulate a four-domain model of risk for substance abuse.
• Develop a plan for assessing need for substance abuse services.
• Recognize the value of social indicator data in prevention needs assessments.

Keywords: Needs Assessment, Substance Abuse Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.