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

Abstract #120803

Steven Whitman, PhD¹, Cheryl Wold, MPH², Bonnie Kerker, PhD³, Ali Mokdad, PhD⁴, and Ami M. Shah, MPH¹. (1) Sinai Health System, Sinai Urban Health Institute, California at 15th Street, K437, Chicago, IL 60608, 773-257-5661, whist@sinai.org, (2) Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology, County of Los Angeles, Department of Health Services, 313 North Figueroa Street Room 127, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (3) New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth Street, CN-6, New York, NY 10013, (4) Behavioral Surveillance Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Hwy NE, MS K-66, Atlanta, GA 30341

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for local area health information for targeting resources, community planning and eliminating health disparities in large urban settings. Information on chronic disease prevalence rates, quality of life measures, and risk factors, including access to services, are critical to public health efforts to monitor and improve health. While much of these data are routinely available through national and statewide surveys, they are not generally designed to provide information at the local (e.g. county, city or neighborhood) level, where they could be most useful in planning and shaping health policies and interventions.

Recently, public health agencies and social epidemiologists have begun to monitor the health status local populations through surveys. For instance, the CDC has designed the Selected Metropolitan/ Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (SMART) project to mathematically estimate prevalence proportions for smaller geographic areas. Others have conducted health surveys at the county level, at the city level and at the community or neighborhood level. All of this has been pursued in response to the growing need for information about the health of local populations.

In an effort share experiences with those who have been involved in generating these local level data and with those who are interested in such data about their communities, we propose this Special Session. We hope to initiate a dialogue about both methodological issues (including limitations and challenges) and findings by examining surveys that have been conducted in different U.S. urban centers.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this proposed Special Session, the participants will be able to

• Compare and contrast the methodologies and findings of these local area estimates;
• Understand the importance of local area health survey data and how they relate to existing data when profiling community health and targeting health promotion efforts; and
• Discuss the relevance of health survey data for smaller geographic areas and/or sub-groups of a population in relation to examining disparities in 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.