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

Abstract #111311

Thomas Reischl, PhD, Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 109 Observatory Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734 763-5568, reischl@umich.edu, Susan Franzen, BA, Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, 601 N. Saginaw Street, Suite 1-C, Flint, MI 48502, and Lori Kunkel, MHA, Greater Flint Health Coalition, 519 South Saginaw Street, Suite 306, Flint, MI 48502-1802.

Over the past three years, a coalition of health care providers and payers, human service providers, community-based organizations, and university-based partners in Genesee County (Michigan) has participated as one of four Friendly Access^SM demonstration sites. The goal of this program was to critically examine and address local barriers to excellent health care services for pregnant women and for young children. Friendly Access^SM and other initiatives in Genesee County have focused on the racial disparities in birth outcomes, including data noting that the infant death rate for African American babies is nearly three times higher than the rate for European American babies. Three years of Genesee County birth records suggest that the African American mothers initiate prenatal care later, receive slightly fewer prenatal care visits, and have more premature and low birth weight births than the European American mothers. Interview data from a representative sample of 358 lower income mothers who had just given birth revealed how perspectives on maternal health care services were significantly different for African American women compared to the European American women. The African American women reported lower ratings of the comfort, respect, concern, and thoroughness shown by prenatal providers. We will also present data from customer satisfaction interviews with 377 parents/guardians of young children receiving pediatric health care services. The presentation will finish with a description of the strategic planning process and the intervention strategies for addressing racial inequities in maternal and child health care services.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to

• Describe the process of community coalition building and coalition functioning to conduct a community-wide study of maternal and child health services.
• Describe how a community coalition used baseline data to discuss barriers to acheiving excellent health care and health and to set priorities and implement community action steps.

Keywords: Community Collaboration, Maternal and Child Health

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.