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Location. Location. Location! – How Los Angeles is using spatial analysis to understand and combat place-based health inequities
Los Angeles is among the first of cities nationwide to create a citywide General Plan Health and Wellness Chapter. To support this effort, the “Health Atlas” was developed to provide a data-driven snapshot of health in Los Angeles to better understand variations in health risk factors and outcomes; to identify areas for more targeted outreach; and to tailor plan goals, objectives, and policies to address inequities.
The Health Atlas articulates the baseline health conditions in the city and provides a context for understanding how demographic conditions, socio-economic factors, the physical environment, access to health care, and health behaviors contribute to the community health. The report presents maps, data, and narrative findings for over 100 health indicators and compiles key indicators into a Community Health and Equity Index. An innovative and interactive web tool was developed to make the data accessible to a wider audience for an array of new uses.
The Health Atlas and the interactive web tool have proved useful for the planning process and public. The Health Atlas and interactive website was called the “neighborhood data portal that every city needs.” The analysis is being used to target outreach and to identify the priority objectives and policies at the neighborhood scale, achieving its intended purposes.
This data analysis permits direct and useful comparisons, highlighting disparities and inequities, and is scaleable based on agency resources.
Learning Areas:
Other professions or practice related to public healthPublic health or related public policy
Learning Objectives:
Explain how to combine and spatially analyze neighborhood, socio-demographic, and health data to better understand the drivers of community health.
Demonstrate an interactive website that illustrates the patterns of health, built environment, and other factors in an accessible way.
Describe how advocacy organizations, public agencies, and researchers utilize publically-accessible data to identify and address the highest need communities/populations
Keyword(s): Health Disparities/Inequities, Built Environment
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Beth Altshuler is a Urban Planning and Public Health Specialist at Raimi + Associates, a firm focused on community planning, sustainability, and health equity. Beth holds master’s degrees in both City and Regional Planning and Public Health Epidemiology/Biostatistics from the UC Berkeley, a BA in Sociology from Cornell University, and is Certified in Public Health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
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.