265690 Estimating the reach of community interventions in the CDC's Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) and Community Transformation (CTG) programs

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 : 4:30 PM - 4:50 PM

Dara O'Neil, PhD , Public Health Division, ICF International, Atlanta, GA
Rebecca Bunnell, ScD, MEd , National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Robin E. Soler, PhD , National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Rebecca Payne, MPH , Division of Community Health-NCCDPHP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chamblee, GA
Beth Reimels, JD , Office of Policy and Partnerships, Division of Community Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chamblee, GA
Lazarous Mbulo, PhD , Public Health Division, ICF International, Atlanta, GA
Pamela Amparo, MPH , Public Health Division, Community Health Solutions, ICF International, Atlanta, GA
Alicia Swann, MPA , Public Health Division, ICF International, Atlanta, GA
The number of potential beneficiaries of an intervention is a critical outcome measure for evaluations of community health initiatives. Reach data provide information on the number of unique individuals exposed to a program's activities. However, a gold standard methodology for measuring reach across policy, systems, and environmental interventions has not been established. We utilized a novel methodology for capturing reach in 100 communities funded by two large CDC investments in community health – the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) and Community Transformation Grant (CTG) programs.

Both programs focus on high-impact, broad-reaching interventions. For example, CPPW will reach over 55 million people - nearly 1 in 5 Americans. To calculate direct and indirect reach, communities estimated population counts using census, school district, and other publicly available data. We also calculated the number of settings (e.g., hospitals, schools) in which those interventions take place. Our approach for CTG also identifies health disparate subpopulations and the percent of possible settings and population per intervention.

These data are stored in a relational database that allows for queries on the reach of any intervention, in any setting, at any point in time. For example, our system shows that over 10 million Americans in 16 CPPW communities have access to healthier foods and beverages that are priced less than their less healthy counterparts. This framework can be applied to similar community-based initiatives to guide mid-course corrections to implementation plans, assist in calculating the early outcomes of the interventions, and inform future investments in community health.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Program planning

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the number of settings and number of people exposed to community-based interventions by measuring their direct and indirect reach in the short and long term Assess the representativeness of the settings and people reached by the community initiative Design a methodology for identifying health disparate subpopulations reached by community-based interventions Assess if the community-based interventions are reaching the people who are the most at risk including disparate populations Identify publicly available data sources for reach calculations

Keywords: Community Health Programs, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the principal investigator and have served as the lead evaluator for federally funded grants focues on community initiatives. I also serve as the Team Lead for the Performance Monitoring Teams for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work Program and Community Transformation Grant Program at the Centers for Disease Control.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

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.