Improving Community Health Survey

Publication Date:

Publisher: Sinai Health System

Author(s): S. Whitman; C. Williams; A.M. Shah

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

In order to understand the health of local communities and to improve the ability to raise health levels for all, researchers from the Sinai Urban Health Institute, the research arm of Chicago's Sinai Health System, conducted a door-to-door survey of 1,700 households in six Chicago communities between September 2002 and April 2003. According to the authors, while health data are collected on national, state, county and city levels, no local community-level data are routinely gathered. The 1,699 adult and 811 child interviews covered topics that included health conditions, health behaviors and attitudes, health care access, quality of life and other social and environmental factors.



The authors present 10 key findings from the survey in this report, along with policy recommendations related to each. The findings address: insurance status and access to care, diabetes, smoking, adult asthma, pediatric asthma, depression, adult obesity/pediatric obesity, HIV/AIDS and health-related quality of life.



Despite national efforts to reduce and eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health care, findings indicate that disparities are worsening in Chicago. The one mainly white, middle-class community surveyed (but not nearly the richest in Chicago), scored significantly better on a variety of health measures than did the two poorest areas surveyed (but not nearly the poorest in the city). Disparities would likely be even greater between communities at the extremes. The authors offer a set of seven overarching policy recommendations applicable both to Chicago and to local communities across the country.