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

Abstract #111471

Lauren A. Shirey, MPH¹, Jan Brady, PhD, RN², Ella Greene-Moton³, Daniel J. Kruger, PhD⁴, Derek M. Griffith, PhD⁴, Patrick Isichei, PhD³, Lori Kunkel, MHA⁵, Susan Morrel-Samuels, MA, MPH⁴, and Arlene Sparks⁶. (1) Genesee County Health Department, 630 S. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502, 810-768-7970, lshirey@gchd.us, (2) Department of Nursing, University of Michigan-Flint, 303 E. Kearsley Street, 2180 White Building, Flint, MI 48502-1950, (3) Health Awareness Center/Flint Odyssey House, Inc., 1225 Martin Luther King Avenue, Flint, MI 48503, (4) Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, SPH II, M2523, 109 Observatory, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, (5) Greater Flint Health Coalition, 519 South Saginaw Street, Suite 306, Flint, MI 48502-1802, (6) Genesee County Community Action Resource Department, 605 N. Saginaw St., Flint, MI 48502

Objectives: To describe the challenges and lessons learned during the process of developing a local health survey in a community-university partnership. Method: To examine social factors influencing health in order to promote beneficial changes in the community, partners from the county health department, a coalition of health service providers, community-based organizations, and the university collaboratively designed the 2003 and 2005 Speak to your Health! Community Surveys. Both survey development processes utilized Community-Based Research Principles, although to varying degrees. Results: Development of the initial local health survey in 2003 presented multiple challenges, particularly the challenge of effective communication with community-based organizations about their needs and concerns. This process was not always successful and resulted in an identified need for improvement. In developing the 2005 iteration of the local health survey, community-based organizations actively pursued bringing the Community Based Research Principles back into focus. Conclusion: A survey development process without an explicit focus on Community Based Research Principles was not sufficient to ensure the community survey process and outcomes were relevant and useful to community-based organizations. Plans for future survey development processes, based on previous challenges and lessons learned, including a specific focus on capacity building for community-based organizations, will be discussed.

Learning Objectives:

1.Articulate challenges to collaboratively designing a local health survey
• Identify the principles of community-based research
• Describe a process for collaborative design of a local survey that is relevant and useful to community-based organizations

Keywords: Community-Based Partnership, Survey

Related Web page: www.sph.umich.edu/prc/products/survey_info.html

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.