Using Data to Advance Health Equity in Your Community

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We have now labored with our companions to handle systems-level challenges together with how information are collected, shared and damaged down by race, ethnicity, gender, age, incapacity, neighborhood and different elements.

Databases and instruments that account for a few of these elements exist already. They supply neighborhood leaders and residents with native well being information, in addition to contextual information on the state, county, metropolis, and Census tract ranges. Moreover, these information sources proceed to evolve as new proof and analysis questions on well being fairness emerge. They assist communities goal interventions and measure progress towards making certain that everybody has a good and simply alternative to obtain good well being.

Use these web sites to: 

The Child Opportunity Index tracks actual individuals from childhood into maturity utilizing Census information. Its aim is to know how neighborhood influences long-term well being, alternative, and wellbeing. It measures 29 elements, categorized underneath three broad headings—training, well being and surroundings, and social and financial. Huge disparities in such fundamental facilities like wholesome meals, good faculties, protected housing, and playgrounds are revealed within the information, which can be found by each Census tracts and ZIP code and might be damaged down by race and ethnicity. Policymakers and community-based organizations can use the information to spend money on and enhance childhood packages that can pay dividends in the long run.

The City Health Dashboard offers information on greater than 40 measures and drivers of well being for greater than 900 U.S. cities and (and rising). These metrics embody: 

  • Particular well being outcomes, similar to low birthweight, opioid overdoses, and cardiovascular deaths.
  • Social and financial elements, similar to kids in poverty, neighborhood segregation, and revenue inequality.
  • Well being behaviors similar to bodily inactivity and smoking.
  • Bodily surroundings such as air pollution, lead publicity, and entry to parks and wholesome meals.
  • Medical care similar to prenatal care, dental care, and insurance coverage standing.

The dashboard additionally offers hyperlinks to mannequin insurance policies and packages, sortable by viewers and diploma of proof, which cities can adapt to enhance their metrics.

The Life Expectancy Calculator estimates life expectancy at beginning by state, county, ZIP code, and all 67,000 Census tracts. Coupled with a companion interactive map, it reveals dramatic disparities that may exist inside just a few miles of each other. For instance, within the combination, Attala County, Mississippi, with a life expectancy of 76.2 years, seems higher than the statewide common of 74.9 years. However when the information are damaged down additional, the image modifications dramatically—one Census tract has a life expectancy of 82.8 years whereas residents in a neighboring tract can count on to dwell simply 66.6 years. That sort of granular info provides a portrait of inequities, serving to to construct the case for focusing on sources the place they’re wanted most. 

The CUSP Database (the COVID-19 U.S. State Coverage Database) tracks state insurance policies put in place through the pandemic, revealing that well-intentioned COVID-19 insurance policies deprived the very communities most in want of help. For instance, the choice to provide aged individuals, slightly than important employees, precedence to vaccines, meant that fewer individuals of coloration had early entry. Equally, some authorities reduction packages, together with unemployment insurance coverage, excluded sure low-wage, tipped, and gig employees. CUSP additionally tracks masks mandates, enterprise closures, stay-at-home and quarantine orders, eviction and utility shutoff protections, SNAP waivers, paid go away, office security requirements, and extra. CUSP information can be utilized to tell equitable well being and social coverage selections, particularly when they’re mixed with well being outcomes information.

With these instruments, researchers, policymakers, and neighborhood activists can take steps to enhance well being outcomes. And with the Nationwide Fee’s tips, we now have a roadmap to make all information instruments far extra helpful sooner or later.

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