Impacting the social determinants of health in three Connecticut cities using a health index, public health workforce development and community engagement

The Connecticut Association of Directors of Health (CADH) embarked on a new approach to impact the root causes of health inequities in Connecticut. They created a Health Index, a web-based data interface that displays measures of social determinants of health (SDOH), health outcomes, and demographic data at multiple levels including census block group, neighborhood levels, city/town, and statewide. The data provide local measures of health disparities and the quality of life or conditions in communities. Three local public health departments: New Haven, Hartford and Groton were chosen to pilot the approach. The sites used the Index to access data about neighborhoods, and to choose neighborhoods in which to focus their efforts. The project also has a workforce development component where health department staff was trained on SDOH and the use of the Index. Finally, there was a community engagement component where health departments reached out to communities to educate them about the SDOH, the Index, and to choose issue areas in which to focus community efforts to ultimately improve public health and/or the SDOH. Applied Survey Research (ASR) is performing an evaluation of the overall project, focusing on use of the Index, workforce development, community engagement, the impact on public policy and improvements in SDOH. Multiple methods are being used to evaluate the project's success including surveys of employees and leadership staff, focus groups, key informant interviews and secondary data analysis. Findings will be available for this unique public health effort to eliminate the SDOH by July 2011.