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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Philip R. Curd, MD, MSPH, Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health, University of Kentucky, 121 Washington Ave, Suite 220, Lexington, KY 40536-0003, 859 257 5678 x82100, prcurd@prtcnet.org and Marta S. Mendiondo, PhD, Department of Biostatistics, University of Kentucky, 121 Washington Ave, Lexington, KY 40536-0003.

Background: Objective 7.9 of Healthy People 2010 (a “developmental” objective) calls for increasing “the proportion of hospitals … that provide community disease prevention and health promotion activities ...” The Kentucky Cardiovascular Health Coalition (KCVHC) adopted this objective into its strategic plan. There was no baseline data for this objective. Kentucky's high incidence of cardiovascular disease has been linked to the state's high prevalence of physical inactivity, poor diet, and tobacco use.

Methods: To gather baseline data we used recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide) and other published sources to develop a questionnaire which was distributed to all 102 non-specialty hospitals in Kentucky. Logistic regression was used to measure the association between health-promotion items and demographic variables.

Results: The response rate was 77.5%. All responding hospitals reported involvement in at least 2 of 12 assessed health-promotion activities and slightly more than half reported involvement in at least seven such activities. All responding hospitals reported some smoking-related health-promotion activities. No significant association was found between geographic location and responses to any health-promotion items. Larger hospitals had significantly more positive responses in the smoking-related subscore (p=0.038).

Conclusion: Many Kentucky community hospitals are involved in at least a few health-promotion activities as recommended by The Community Guide. There was little difference in the performance of larger urban hospitals vs. smaller rural ones. Hospitals that are small, rural, or in economically depressed areas are well positioned to support community health promotion.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the learner in this session will be able to

• Describe how The Community Guide can be used as a standard for measuring how much hospitals support efforts in their communities to increase access to health promotion activities.
• List 3 community-based health promotion activities recommended by The Community Guide (the Task Force on Community Preventive Services).
• Discuss the demographic characteristics of hospitals that are more supportive of community health promotion activities.

Keywords: Community Preventive Services, Evidence Based Practice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered

Handout (.pdf format, 563.1 kb)