Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #109328

Sharon A. (Sandy) Johnson, PhD, Health Assessment and Evaluation, Multnomah County Health Department, 426 Stark Street, 9th Floor, Portland, OR 97204, 503-988-3674, sandy.a.johnson@co.multnomah.or.us and Lillian Shirley, RN, MPH, MPA, Director, Multnomah County Health Department, 426 Stark Street, 8th Floor, Portland, OR 97204.

The identification and reduction of health disparities across racial and ethnic groupings has been identified as a public health goal in numerous national policy settings. The methods for identifying disparities have been developed and documented, but less obvious have been the methods for identifying progress in reducing disparities, as well as providing metrics for use by decision makers in making the difficult resource allocations that accompany the current budget climate.

This presentation will describe the development of the report “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Multnomah County: 1990-2002”, highlight the methodologies used to assess changes in the degree of disparity across a variety of health indicators, and describe the changing patterns in racial disparities over that time period. Beyond that, the report has been presented to a variety of community and policy groups, and has been cited by County decision-makers as one of the key elements in setting budget priorities in the current fiscal climate. The presentation will describe not only the report methodology, but these efforts to use the report to enhance public and policy-maker information on this critical topic.

Findings from the 1990-1992 study will be updated and reported. The 1990-2002 report indicated improvement over time in many of the indicators examined. For example, disparities for African Americans in infant, heart disease, and lung cancer mortality were down substantially. However, other measures such as diabetes disparities were increasing for African Americans. Although not currently showing disparities, mortality trends for heart disease, stroke, and cancers were up for Latinos.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to

• Identify a methodology for assessing changes in health disparities.
• Describe some alternative presentations of health disparity information.
• Acquire tools to strengthen policy influence.
• Describe next steps in reducing health disparities.

Keywords: Health Disparities, Health Assessment

Related Web page: www.co.multnomah.or.us/health/hra/reports/healthdisparities2004.pdf

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.