Using a Web-based System to Collect Evidence-based Policy and Environmental Changes for Health Promotion at the Community Level

Despite increased attention to the obesity epidemic, 62.8% of North Carolina (N.C.) adults are overweight or obese, and N.C. has the fifth highest child obesity rate in the United States. The evidence base for obesity prevention calls for changes to work and home environments to support healthier behaviors (e.g., healthy eating, increased physical activity). The N.C. Division of Public Health (DPH), is collecting information on improvements to policies and practices of worksites, schools, and other organizations across the state that support obesity prevention.

N.C. has a strong statewide public health system of 85 autonomous local health departments. In 2004, N.C. DPH trained local health department staff to use an Access-based reporting system to track local activities related to policy and environmental approaches. However, it had several limitations: 1) local staff frequently had technical difficulties with the system; 2) data coded by eighty different local staff was inconsistent; and 3) lack of statewide trends. The system is now being replaced with a web-based system that tracks policy and environmental changes at the organizational and community levels in a more streamlined, user-friendly way by asking users to report only specific outcomes as prompted by the system.

If successfully implemented, the current web-based system will represent a promising practice for tracking specific policy and environmental initiatives that may impact obesity at the community level. This system will allow all N.C. chronic disease and health promotion programs to use the same system to report, collect, and analyze county-level data and state health initiative trends.