18a) Disparities Education Dissemination Activities
        Deborah Geary and Bruce Behringer, RACDP

     SUMMARY
     Findings from the Program were presented to groups of community leaders and to adult education classes to identify their responses. Responses identify issues of believability and barriers to potential individual and collective action to reduce the burden of cancer in the region.

     FINDINGS
     18.1   Participants knew about disparities through their work and some learned from grant-funded reports and briefs.
     18.2   Many of the participants were surprised about the increase of disparities among the African-American population.
     18.3   Participants were also interested in the fact that rates varied across the region as well as the finding that socioeconomic status played a role in mortality.
     18.4   Participants identified two main challenges to communicating about cancer in the region
               a)A lack of understanding as to why health and poor health outcomes are not an immediate concern for individuals;
               b)The amount of information that is received by the community about cancer is unknown.
     18.5   Participants agreed that disparities exist in the region and communication is essential to eliminating these disparities.

Presentation Regarding Disparities (PDF File)

18b) Cancer Data and Reporting to the Regional Health Information Organization
        Debora Geary, RACDP

     SUMMARY
     The Central Appalachian Health Improvement Partnership is one of seven federally assisted projects to test development of regional health information organizations (RHIO) through DHHS Office of Health Information Technology. It is a two-state regional initiative (East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia) now in its strategic planning stages, looking to use patient care data exchange among health providers and development of physician decision systems to improve regional health status. One of our contributions has been to share the data we have on local health status. The report excerpts key mortality trend data and subgroup mortality data from our presentation, and then outline researcher and community responses to the data. In all figures, “our region” indicates data specifically for the 17 county region in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia that is the catchments area for CAHIP.

     FINDINGS
     18.1   When CAHIP participants and other community members viewed this data; they clearly saw that the health status of the region is poor compared to the nation, and that the pattern is bad across many diseases. While this was not particularly surprising to our audiences, they were surprised that the trend is worsening.
     18.2   General public perception locally is that things were worse in the past, and that we now have more economic and medical resources in the region, so that should be helping our health status. The data was seen as providing strong support for the need to act soon to address our regional health outcomes.
     18.3   When CAHIP participants and other community members viewed this data, they were surprised that at the variability – those women have excessive mortality for diabetes, but not for cancer, and it is the opposite for men.
     18.4   Our audiences were also very surprised that it is the younger generations at highest risk, since that is the generation that should be benefiting from regional progress. However, it did not take people long to start identifying reasons why they believe this age group has poorer mortality outcomes, starting with lifestyle behaviors.

Disseminating Mortality Data (PDF File)

18c) Summary of Community Leader Responses to Dissemination Reports
        Charles Naney, RACDP

     SUMMARY
     Program representatives presented research findings about Appalachian health disparities at five community meetings. This report summarizes the written observations of health volunteers and community leaders to the presentations. Respondents indicated only modest awareness of regional disparity data and expressed surprise about excessive premature mortality and very high mortality rates among Appalachian African Americans. Respondents identified that regional disparities pose a dual challenge: to improve communication about health and to understand personal priorities of Appalachian persons, particularly those with limited resources. Respondents cited access to care, personal knowledge and awareness, and public education as strategic issues to address disparities.

     FINDINGS
     18.1   Many findings about health disparities in the Appalachian region surprised participants.
     18.2   Those participants who were regularly involved in public health employment or service on voluntary committees and boards recognized disparity issues but were unaware of the details.
     18.3   Participants suggested that the Program actively report disparity findings to the public and to health leaders using improved communication approaches to affect personal and community action to address those disparities.

Focus Groups on Dissemination (PDF File)

18d) Creation Of Public Health Service Announcements (PDF File)

Back to RACPD Projects