159056 Relating National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center training events to high minority AIDS prevalence geographic areas

Monday, November 5, 2007

Christiana Metzger, MA , Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Chiehwen Ed Hsu, PhD, MPH , Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Bradley O. Boekeloo, PhD, MS , Department of Public and Community Health, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
David Luckett , College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC
Goulda Downer, PhD , College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC
Sheila McKinney, MA , College of Medicine, Howard University, Washington, DC
As the allocation of limited health resources becomes increasingly based on evidence, there is an expressed need to examine the relationships between AIDS intervention programs and geographic areas of minority populations adversely affected by HIV/AIDS. The purpose of this study is to identify these relationships to help determine whether resources are being expended appropriately in areas where there is the highest AIDS prevalence. University of Maryland investigators developed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application to relate health care provider training activities conducted by the federally funded National Minority AIDS Education Center (NMAETC), to its spatial relationship of AIDS prevalence rates among African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian and Hispanic populations in the United States.

Standard Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) data collection forms are used to document trainings by NMAETC from September 2005 to August 2006. Data spatially represents: 1) location of trainings geo-coded at the zipcode level; 2) gradiently colored circles showing trainings received within state boundaries; and 3) AIDS case rates of African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian and Hispanic minority populations within state boundaries, as indicated by color-shading. These geographic presentations allow for visual inspection of whether the volume of training reflects parallel AIDS prevalence rates of minority populations by state.

NMAETC provider training is high in California, Texas, and Washington, DC which parallel high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates for some minority populations. Less training occurs in the Northeastern, Southern and Western regions of the United States where HIV/AIDS incidence rates are high for some minority populations.

The results suggest that generally, there were more NMAETC provider trainings for the American Indian/Alaskan Native population in American Indian/Alaskan Native high prevalence states, compared to NMAETC provider trainings for African American and Hispanic populations in African American and Hispanic high prevalence states.

Learning Objectives:
1.Learn how to evaluate and interpret data for a national center that addresses AIDS educational training in minority populations using GIS applications. 2.Describe how maps are used to assemble and visually inspect several different types of data that may be otherwise difficult to examine correlation in tabular presentations. 3.Discuss the challenges and opportunities of employing GIS in terms of program evaluation.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Health Information

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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