US Communities Need More Accessible Data to Improve Health, Not Less

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 111; no. 10; pp. 1728 - 1730
• Main Authors: Hutchins, Sonja S., Mayberry, Robert M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington American Public Health Association 01.10.2021
• Subjects: Accessibility; Advocacy; Census; Censuses; Charities; Community; Community Health; Community involvement; Community participation; Coronaviruses; Councils; Counties; COVID-19; Data collection; Datasets; Epidemiology; Fairness; Geography; Health care; Health disparities; Health Promotion; Health services; Health status; Leadership; Life expectancy; Local communities; Medical research; Nonprofit organizations; Opinions, Ideas, & Practice; Organizations; Other Statistics/Evaluation/Research; Pandemics; Planning; Preventive medicine; Primary care; Public health; Race/Ethnicity; Religious behavior; Religious beliefs; Religious organizations; Residents; Social services; Units of measurement; Well being; United States > US
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306483

In this AJPH issue, Phillips et al. (p. 1865) raise a major concern about discontinuation of the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) tool in 2017 without a similar replacement. CHSIs are standardized health outcomes and key social, economic, and physical environmental determinants of health for US counties with peer comparisons. These data were also easily accessible to the public as a data set. As health equity researchers who search for and use publicly available data to improve community health through community engagement, we are also concerned that to date there is still no replacement tool for informing community stakeholders' advocacy and action as described in the Morehouse model for effective community engagement.1Although the measurement unit is the county, CHSIs are important sources of data. The CHSI tool is also a platform to stimulate data collection at smaller geographic areas such as city, zip code, census track, or census blocks. These are the local areas in which community- and faith-based organizations, civic organizations, social services, local public health agencies, and community leaders and advocates are increasingly engaged to improve the health of local residents.2 Smaller geographic areas are often those most affected by the determinants of health, which the CHSI tool helps to explicate. Smaller geographic areas are also those where many health disparities are often observed and areas that stimulate the most significant community involvement and strategic action by local communities to find local solutions to improve health and well-being.