Organizing and understanding data in a community needs assessment process: The lessons of alcohol prevention coalitions in Washington State

In 2004 the State of Washington received a Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) State Incentive Grant (SIG) from the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. In addition to planning state-wide activities, Washington funded 12 communities to address underage drinking through the implementation of evidence-based practices locally. Each community conducted a needs assessment to prioritize intervening variables related to youth alcohol use that were most problematic in the community. Washington State's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse provided a guiding framework that incorporated community-wide environmental variables as well as risk and protective factors evidenced in the state's biennial youth survey. The state provided Community Profiles of data from a variety of sources (e.g. state agency databases, student surveys) and the funded communities added locally-collected data. Project evaluators created worksheets and tables of these data to assist coalitions in 1) determining additional data collection needs, 2) understanding data related to youth alcohol use consequences, consumption, and intervening variables, and 3) prioritizing key intervening variables for strategic planning. A key feature of the needs assessment process involved the use of logistic regression analysis and resultant odds ratios to determine which variables were most strongly associated with youth alcohol use. In addition, comparisons were made (a) across time points, (b) in relation to the county/state, and (c) between the variables themselves to arrive at prevention priorities. Worksheets and tables for sample communities will be provided to illustrate the process. Specific ways communities dealt with challenges and grappled with interpretation of the data will be described.