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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Barbara J. Seitz de Martinez, PhD, MLS, CPP and Desiree Goetze, MPH, CHES, CPP. Indiana Prevention Resource Center, Indiana University, 2735 E. 10th Street, Creative Arts Room 110, Bloomington, IN 47408, 812-855-1237, dgoetze@indiana.edu

The combination of local data and Geographic Information System software gives public health professionals a dynamic method for describing basic demographics and assessing resources as well as needs for a given geographic area or population. Given current emphases in public health on the small geographic area, cultural competence, and using data to support decision-making, this potential of GIS is highly relevant. The Indiana Prevention Resource Center has embraced the power of GIS and is using it to drive substance abuse prevention planning.

Focusing upon the changing faces of tobacco-producing counties in Indiana, we will present research that employs local data and GIS software to inform public health planning. Our research uses GIS to produce maps and analyses comparing the top 10 tobacco-producing counties in Indiana for multiple variables to answer the question: Are the tobacco use rates lower in tobacco counties that have enacted a comprehensive tobacco control program? We use local data and GIS to analyze the elements of a comprehensive tobacco control program, including: public education efforts; community-based, school-based, and cessation programs; compliance inspections and failure rates; adult smoking rates; smoking policies for the workplace and public spaces, and county ordinances. Moreover, we combine local data and GIS to evaluate the counties' application of the guiding principles of comprehensive tobacco control: Is it comprehensive? Well-funded? Sustained over time? Free of political and tobacco industry influence? Addressing high risk and diverse populations? Having answered the initial question, our GIS facilitated research then suggests an explanation for the results.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how the combination of local data and GIS software may be used to inform public health planning.
• Articulate whether tobacco – producing counties in Indiana have lower tobacco use rates when a comprehensive tobacco control program is in place.
• Discuss how local data and GIS software can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of public health efforts.

Keywords: Tobacco Control, Geographic Information Systems

Related Web page: This research is a separate project, but is related to the GIS in prevention work of our Center: www.drugs.indiana.edu/resources/prev-stat/index.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation