The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #44364

Sally J Guttmacher, PhD¹, Geeta Nanda, MHS¹, Aileen Reid, MPA², Jessica Greene, MPH², Carolyn A Berry, PhD³, and Louise R. Cohen, MPH⁴. (1) Health Studies, New York University, 726 Broadway, 5th floor, (rm 515), New York City, NY 10003, (2) Center for Health and Public Service Research, New York University, 726 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10003, (3) Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University, 726 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York City, NY 10003, (4) NYC Childhood Asthma Initiative, New York City Department of Health, 40 Worth Street, Room 1607, New York, NY 10013

New York City’s Childhood Asthma Initiative targets communities with a high prevalence of asthma. Lead agencies in different selected boroughs of New York City have been funded to establish asthma community partnerships made up of members from community organizations interested in increasing awareness about asthma and in decreasing asthma prevalence. The evaluation of the Asthma Iinitiative is designed, in part, to measure its diffusion throughout the selected communities. In order tTo determine how effective the campaign has been in reaching organizations not directly involved in asthma prevention, a questionnaire was developed and distributed by mail to the directors of a sample of community based organizations throughout the targeted zip codes. Types of organizations sampled include: day care centers, churches, libraries, social service agencies, etc. Directors responded to questions about their awareness of the Aasthma Iinitiative, knowledge of organizations that provide asthma- related services, the level of concern about asthma in their communities, as well as asthma- related resources needed bythat would be potentially useful to their organization.

Diffusion is at the heart of a number of community-based initiatives. However, there has been little emphasis on the methods used to measure diffusion; this paper is an attempt to address that gap by discussing the methods involved in measuring diffusion of a local public health initiative.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss methods of selection of organizations to evaluate diffusion of a community based intervention.
• Describe measurement issues in the assessment of a community based intervention.

Keywords: Asthma, Community Health Assessment

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.