141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

287440
An evaluation of the Illinois lead program ‘s goal to eliminate childhood lead poisoning: 1995 to 2010

Monday, November 4, 2013 : 5:10 PM - 5:30 PM

Mohammed Shahidullah, Ph.D., M.P.H. , Illinois Center for Health Statistics (ICHS), Illinois Department of Public Health, Springfield, IL
Frida Fokum, Ph.D. , Illinois Lead Program, IDPH, Springfield, IL
This paper evaluates the outcomes of the Illinois Lead Program (ILP) using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) framework for program evaluation in public health. The program was funded by the CDC as well as Illinois State funding. ILP was committed to the Healthy People 2010 goal of eliminating elevated blood levels (10 micrograms or more per deciliter) in children under the age of six years. The Illinois Department of Public Health entered into grant agreements with 83 delegate agencies (local health departments) to provide case management care for lead poisoned children in 91 of 102 counties. The program used lead surveillance data from 1995 to 2010 to measure incidence and prevalence of elevated blood lead levels among children screened for lead poisoning, and also used matched data from the Medicaid enrolled children. A comparison of the incidence and prevalence of lead poisoning has been made between Medicaid and non-Medicaid children. The analysis was done for all of Illinois including Chicago. There has been significant decline in lead poisoning among the screened children between 1995 and 2010. In 1996, 26.3 percent of the screened children enrolled in the Medicaid program and 20.8% of the screened children not enrolled in the Medicaid program had elevated blood lead levels. The corresponding percents for 2010 were 1.6 and 1.3. Also significant disparities existed by age, age of housing and race and ethnicity. We hope that lessons learned from this project can be used in other similar projects including the Healthy Homes project the goal, which is to identify, eliminate or mitigate health and safety issues in the home environment.

Learning Areas:
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Environmental health sciences
Epidemiology
Public health or related education
Public health or related nursing
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Assess magnitude of childhood lead poisoning in Illinois.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been serving on the the advisory council of the Illinois Lead Program since 2004 and a member of the workgroup Evaluation.
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.