333500
Using interactive web applications to share health-related data with a lay audience
Monday, November 2, 2015
: 11:10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Amanda Houpt, MPH,
School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Martha Zorn, MS,
School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Rachel Volberg, PhD,
School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Amherst, MA
Stephen A. Lauer,
Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Amherst, MA
Emily Ramos, MS(c),
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Jenna Kiridly, MPH(c),
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Xuelian LI, MS(c),
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA
Background: The Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) Study is a legislatively mandated, multi-year research project that examines the impacts of introducing casino gambling in Massachusetts. While focused primarily on problem gambling, the study also examines a wide array of social, health, and economic impacts through collection and analysis of primary and secondary data. One major goal is to share data and results widely by giving stakeholders a neutral database for strategic analysis and decision-making. Objective/Purpose: Allow stakeholders to interact with our data, examine their own communities, and compare them to other communities across the state. Methods: Shiny transforms data into interactive web applications that anyone can use. Data can be viewed in a number of formats including summary tables, graphs, and maps. Users can interact with specific measures and communities of interest. They can also compare communities across the state as well as with the US as a whole. To further our goal of transparency, we document the apps we create and share them on GitHub. Results: This real-time demonstration will show participants the apps we have created with publicly accessible secondary data. Applications include data on suicides, poverty, educational attainment, marital status, household income, and veteran’s status. Discussion/Conclusions: Users can utilize our apps to better understand their communities and advocate for change. Others can use our methods to create apps for their own communities. In the future, we plan to experiment with displaying primary data from population surveys using these apps.
Learning Areas:
Biostatistics, economics
Communication and informatics
Epidemiology
Learning Objectives:
Describe and demonstrate a series of web-based applications that allow users to manipulate data without accessing a statistical software package.
Access information about the process we used to create web-based applications, which they can use to create their own apps.
Discuss the use of interactive web applications as a way of engaging a broad base of stakeholders in research.
Keyword(s): Data Collection and Surveillance, Information Technology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have seven years of project management experience, including coordination and management of three large research studies. Sharing findings with a broad base of stakeholders has been a key focus of two of these studies. For the past year, I have supervised the creation of the applications we will present about. Therefore, I am qualified to be an abstract author of this content.
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.
