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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Michael J. Kazda, MA, Dorian Villegas, MPH, Elizabeth Rossmann Beel, MPH, and Witold Migala, PhD, MPH. Public Health Department/Epidemiology, City of Fort Worth, 1800 University Drive, Room 218, Fort Worth, TX 76107, 817-871-7362, Dorian.Villegas@fortworthgov.org

To ensure a highly-reliable random sample of a diverse municipal population, the City of Fort Worth Public Health Department employed a geographic information system (GIS) to integrate extant data from multiple sources in the design of sampling strategies and construction of sampling frames for a community needs assessment. Data from the most recent U.S. Census were aggregated by locally derived geographic strata to provided household counts and housing status for the non-institutionalized population of the municipality. Property tax appraisal district data and lot boundaries allowed efficient enumeration of single-family residences and provided a database for randomization and sample frame construction based on the residence location within twelve geographically defined strata. Integration in the GIS allowed for the extraction of all single-family housing properties within each stratum. These files were randomized and the required samples were exported as address lists. Lists were sorted by a geographically based grid index system to permit efficient survey administration. Land use files allowed for the identification of multi-family housing units and informed sampling of these dwellings proportionate to their occupancy and contribution to the overall population. Residence location was captured at the time of survey administration to permit geocoding of resulting surveys and subsequent stratification of assessment data by various geographically defined strata. The innovative application of GIS in the sampling design and survey administration yielded a highly-reliable, randomly distributed sample of the municipal population for a large-scale cross sectional survey and permitted ad hoc analyses of varied and changing geographic strata.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the use of GIS in sampling design for a large-scale, cross-sectional survey;
• Recognize the benefits of integrating data utilizing the GIS platform;
• Understand the utility of incorporating a geographic component to all phases of needs assessment administration and analysis.

Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Needs Assessment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation