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

Abstract #110095

Ayotunde T. Ademoyero, MPH, Health Surveillance Unit, Forsyth County Department of Public Health, 799 N. Highland Avenue, Winston-Salem, NC 27102, 336-703-3120, ademoyat@co.forsyth.nc.us

Critical findings of the 2003 Forsyth County Community Assessment Process revealed that Forsyth County residents experienced a high level of preventable diseases and premature deaths attributed to tobacco use, unhealthy dietary habits, and inadequate physical exercise. They experienced a disproportionately high rate of pregnancy loss and infant death, especially among low-income racial minority women. Although they had better access to health care than comparable communities, members of racial and ethnic minorities experienced greater obstacles to care. Racial inequities in health outcomes were even greater in Forsyth County than in the state of North Carolina and the nation. Racial Disparities in Health Outcomes was one of the top priority concerns from the assessment. An innovative technique such as Geographic Information System (GIS) has been increasingly used in public health to visualize, manipulate, analyze, and display spatial data and for examining health disparities. In an attempt to demonstrate the association between neighborhood characteristics and racial disparities in health, we will use GIS to identify and visualize the spatial location of various indicators such as: health outcomes, demographics, socio-economic status, public resources, health care resources, and commercial resources within two distinct identified areas. With the collaboration of the Forsyth County Healthy Community Coalition, the findings of this study will provide a compelling visual representation of data that can be easily understood by the community and policymakers. Additionally, it will raise community awareness of geographic disparities and impact future public policy to improve neighborhood characteristics.

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Evaluate the usefulness of GIS mapping in community health assessment.
• 2. Recognize the correlation between marketing patterns of healthy/unhealthy products, location of resources and residential patterns.
• 3. Garner community and governmental leadership for engendering political accountability and for leveraging resources and authority

Keywords: Community Health Assessment, Geographic Information Systems

Related Web page: www.co.forsyth.nc.us/Documents/2003CommunityAssessment.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.