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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Janey E. Skinner, MPH, Health Education and Community Health Studies, City College of San Francisco, 50 Phelan Avenue, Cloud 363, San Francisco, CA 94112, 510 652 3932, janey@janeyskinner.com and Tanya A. Henneman, Chronic disease program, City of Berkeley Public Health, 1947 Center St, Second Floor, Berkeley, CA 94704.

This presentation will illustrate the process and results of a community-based planning process to address health disparities in hypertension in Berkeley, California, with a focus on African Americans. The planning process involved engaging a multi-agency collaborative to coordinate assessment and planning activities, including key informant interviews, community surveys, focus groups, a literature review and a town hall meeting. This plan was initiated after a 2002 community health status report showed that African Americans residents, only 13% of Berkeley's total population, accounted for 48% of deaths from stroke and 36% of deaths from coronary hearth disease and hypertension.

The yearlong planning process rendered interesting findings on the intersections of race, prevention and medical care. Different data sources utilized in the planning process pointed to different experiences and attitudes among residents about the impacts of racism, access to care, and healthy lifestyles on cardiovascular health. The presentation will illustrate these differences and how they affected the interventions selected for the hypertension plan.

As a result of the planning process, Berkeley now has a multi-year plan to prevent and reduce hypertension and uncontrolled hypertension among low-income residents, especially African Americans. This plan includes interventions along a spectrum from primary prevention and environmental risk factors through integrated care management for people with hypertension and related chronic conditions. This session will include highlights of the early implementation of the plan, as well as the development of health indicators and evaluation tools to track its effectiveness.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Describe specific methods for coordinating a planning process with multiple agencies, using a hybrid approach to blend research skills and community practice.
• Discuss contradictions that may arise when triangulating multiple data sources on health disparities.

Keywords: African American, Hypertension

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation