 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Patricia Gail Bray, PhD, Karen J Williams, PhD, Jane Peranteau, PhD, and Ilana Reisz, MA. Community Health Assessment, St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities, 6221 Main Street, Houston, TX 77030, 713-807-0752, pbray@sleh.com
Assessing the well-being of children in a community over time is a challenging task. In a large urban community, tracking the critical measures that affect child health requires successful leadership and collaboration as well as attention to technical detail and community involvement in the process. During the past two years, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities (SLEHC), a faith-based, public health charity, has chaired a child health research council in Houston, Texas. SLEHC, The University of Texas School of Public Health, and nine other community partners are engaged in a long-term project to enhance the child well-being assessment measures as part of a web-based Community Health Information System. This paper will examine the process and outcomes of this project. We have implemented a child well-being measure that uses seven health status indicators, building on Sampson’s work in developing local area health indices. Indices include, for example, proportion of children in poverty and the infant mortality rate. Using geographic information software, we created maps to display changes over time in specific neighborhoods and to target interventions in underserved communities. Our goal is to compile 10-year trends of these seven indicators by neighborhood and to compare them with the Healthy People 2010 objectives using visual display. We plan to expand these seven indicators into a comprehensive set of 40 indicators. The design of the child health information system will be a model for other communities interested in using a local, sub-county level of analysis to track and achieve Healthy People 2010 objectives.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Child Health, Collaboration
Related Web page: www.slehc.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities
The University of Texas School of Public Health
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Employee for St. Luke's and grant maker for UTSPH