Community Health Need Assessment

Preventive health care reduces the incidence of chronic disease and supports long-term quality of life. This paper examines evidence-based strategies in nutrition, physical activity, mental health, preventive screenings, and environmental health. Emphasis is placed on practical steps that individuals and communities can apply to strengthen outcomes. The discussion highlights how structured routines and accessible resources improve both personal and public health.

Socioeconomic Status and Cancer Risks in Employer-Insured Cancer Survivors by Christine Clinton MS, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 2002 BS, Minnesota State University, Mankato, 1998 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Chronic illnesses such as cancer continue to be among the costliest for employers who provide health insurance to their employees. Despite efforts to incorporate health improvement programs in the workplace, there are concerns about the effectiveness of these programs that do not always deliver a positive return on investment. Little is known about the specific socioeconomic status of employees for whom these workplace health improvement programs are designed for. Guided by the social-ecological model, this study sought to understand the relationship between cancer health risks about socioeconomic factors among cancer survivors in the employer-insured population. Data were extracted from the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for employerinsured individuals who identified as having been diagnosed with cancer at some point in their life (N = 7,007). A multivariate linear regression analysis was used to assess the effect of household income, level of education, race/ethnicity of respondents on cancer health risks based on the American Cancer Society Guidelines on Nutrition and Physical Activity for Cancer Prevention (ACS). The analysis of variance indicated that the overall model was significant (P < .05). College graduates had the highest level of compliance with requirement for cancer prevention; participants' adherence to the guidelines varied depending on their household income. This study may contribute to positive social change as it suggests that socioeconomic characteristics of employer-insured individuals, including health history, need to be taken into consideration in the development and implementation of worksite health improvement programs.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

We separately use the difference-indifferences technique and the synthetic control method on county-level data to test the impact of mandatory menu labeling laws on obesity and diabetes rates. Results show a decline in the growth of obesity rates following passage of the law at the state level in California and for six counties on the East Coast. We identify no significant impact to diabetes rates.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Within many urban communities, there has been a steady decline in healthy living practices among minority families.  This decline is often due to the lack of health services and health knowledge of youth and adults (Shirley, Roark, & Lewis, 2012).  In order to better reach these particular audiences it has been suggested by scholars and practitioners to focus on community based programming. Partnerships formed through entities such as universities and community organizations have been shown to be quite successful in creating healthier families. This paper discusses one such program focused on increasing health knowledge of urban families. Activities offered included health screenings and healthy living programming for youth.  Program results showed that nearly 95% of youth found the activities informative and gave them ways to think about their health and the health of their families.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of young people about social campaigns related to food and nutrition using as an example the campaigns 'I know what I choose' , 'The labeling of food products with GDA' and 'Cool kids do not eat junk food'. Material and methods: The survey was conducted in a group of elementary school students, junior high, and high school students. The final analysis of the survey enrolled 463 people whose questionnaires were completed correctly and returned. Schools participating in the study were randomized from all types of schools. Results: 63.9% of respondents demonstrated knowledge of the logo used in the campaign, 'I know what I choose'. The respondents were asked about a list of foods which had the information of the Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA). 72.0% of students, 42.1% of middle school students, 41.9% of high school students and 29.4% of primary school children were able to identify the product with GDA. Conclusions: Among the respondents, the detailed knowledge of each campaign was not satisfactory. The campaigns 'Cool kids do not eat junk food' and 'I know what I choose' were among the most well-known in the group of pupils in primary school and students. The GDA campaign was the best known in the group of students, but the ability to use the GDA label properly was low. In the study group, body weight did not significantly affect the level of knowledge about social campaigns. However, it was observed that the campaign 'I know what I choose' is better known by persons of normal weight than among people who are overweight or obese.

Portrait of Nemaha County Nemaha County is home to approximately 7,085 people. 1 Auburn is the county seat and the county's largest town, with a population of about 3,267. 2 Nemaha County was one of the initial eight counties of the Nebraska Territory. Its location along the Missouri River makes it an ideal place for food cultivation.

Is the evaluation Useful? Will the amount and type of information you collect meet the needs of those who intend to use the evaluation findings? Feasible? Will the evaluation be practical, doable, and realistic? Accurate? Will the evaluation findings be correct? Fair? Will the evaluation be conducted with awareness of the rights of the people involved in the program? All standards cannot be achieved equally in every situation. However, some standards must always be preserved. Although an accurate measurement of physical activity might not be feasible because of its cost or complexity, you can never skimp on fairness. Likewise, an evaluation is not worth doing if the results will not be used. * In addition to the logic model, you might also need to create SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) objectives for both process and outcome measures (e.g., "In the first semester, weekly walks from five different locations will be held."). See Appendix 4.

Background Physical activity is crucial for child obesity prevention and intervention. Narratives embedded in active games can increase children’s physical activity. Objective Little is known about the narrative characteristics that would motivate children to exercise. We attempted to fill the gaps in understanding regarding narrative design for active video games. Methods In this exploratory study, four animated narratives of different genres were professionally generated. Children (N=41) between the ages of 8 and 12 years were interviewed to identify their preferences. Sessions were digitally recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using exploratory thematic analysis. Results Findings revealed that the children rated the dystopian science fiction story as their favorite across all weight, race, and gender groups. The physical activity-friendly narrative strategies included virtuous characters, extraordinary character actions, interesting plots, super powers, and engaging cliffhangers....

BACKGROUND: This study investigates how the Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act affected state high school dropout rates. METHODS: This study relies on a differences-indifferences estimation strategy that is common in program evaluation, especially in education. This method replicates in a regression framework a classic pre-test post-test comparison group quasi-experimental design. The analysis is conducted at the state level, which reduces the precision of the estimates. RESULTS: States that adopted the Medicaid Expansion had a 0.658 percentage point greater reduction in dropout rates than non-Expansion states in the year of Medicaid implementation. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that if all the remaining non-Expansion states adopted Medicaid, there would be a decrease of over 92,500 youths who drop out of high school, representing a drop of 11.2% in the number of dropouts in these states. CONCLUSION: The Medicaid Expansion of the Affordable Care Act is more than just a health insurance program; it is a dropout prevention program.

Obesity continues to be a growing epidemic in the United States. Individuals who live in low-income communities' face inequities in areas that continue to have adverse and long-lasting consequences. These consequences can extend from economic conditions, social support, and a lack of access to healthy eating choices and physical activity, all of which contribute to higher obesity rates. It is essential to increase opportunities for change in low-income communities and provide ongoing recommendations to policymakers to allocate resources where it is needed. This paper aims to examine a Health Ambassador model in low-income communities tailored to residents in public housing and other community settings through a community-based intervention. The proposed model focuses on healthy eating, active living, and advocacy to combat obesity in communities utilizing public housing as the appropriate setting to inform individuals and their families about the importance of nutrition, food, health, and their environment. The model effectively elevates community leaders to serve as Health Ambassadors, which in part are from the same community of residents living in public housing but not limited to this community setting. As a result, healthy behaviors that are influenced by a complex interweaving economic, social, and personal factors will be tackled through supportive behavior change. A key aspect to successfully implement this community-based intervention is to make the interventions accessible to the community. The Health Ambassador model will build on existing initiatives that encourage and assist local government and community organizations to put in place healthy eating and active living policies.

Limits on health care resources mandate that decision makers design intervention strategies that are cost-effective. In this dissertation, three cost-effective models are developed and applied to address three different health care problems. The first problem is concerned with the evaluation of children's dental care practices using longitudinal claims data. By linking service mix to the stage of care and applying a Markov chain approach, we examine the feasibility of using recurring patterns of care to evaluate how well patients are integrated into the dental system. The results suggest that privately-insured children are better integrated into dental care than Medicaid-insured children. In addition, transition probabilities

for insights that improved the analysis. All remaining errors are our own. No external research support was used to conduct this research. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Increased prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy (1) underlines the importance of optimizing outcomes. Prior studies demonstrate benefits of breastfeeding for mothers with OUD and may reduce the severity of Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS) in infants (2). Only low levels of methadone and buprenorphine are transferred to breast milk (3). However, there are demonstrated breastfeeding disparities in women with a history of substance use disorders. In the U.S., 83.2% of women initiate breastfeeding and 57.6% of women

This study was planned to determine the physical activity (PA), nutrition and self-efficacy levels of sedentary individuals have long been members of fitness clubs. Material: A total of 80 participants were divided into two groııps according to body mass index (BMI) according to their obesity status: Group 1 (overvveight obesity (OW)) and Group 2 (Normal Weight (NW)). All participants were watched for a year. The stııdy includes questionnaires on PA, eating habits, nutrition knovvledge and self-efficacy. Descriptive statistics including frequency, percentiles, ınean and Standard deviation were used. The T test was used to examine differences between PA, eating habits, nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy. Statistical significance was accepted as P <0.05. Results: Regarding participants' eating habits, the OW group was less frequent breakfast (P <0.05) and snack (P <0.01), ate more meals (P <0.01). When coınpared with the NW group, they showed less desirable behavior during the meal (P <0.05 for men). OW men spent less time (P <0.01) during vveekdays or weekends while doing less PA (P <0.01). OW woınen sat more in the vveekdays or weekends (P <0.01) and spent less time walking or riding a bicycle (P <0.05) than the NW group. The nutritional information of the OW and NW groups was not significantly different. Especially PA self-efficacy in OW was significantly lower than in NW group (P <0.01). Conclusions: This study revealed differences betvveen PA, eating habits and self-efficacy betvveen OW and NW individuals. Sedanter individuals who are members of fitness clubs should exercise exercise programs to prevent obesity and to increase the confidence about exercise or physical activity.

Offline Effects of Online Connecting: The Impact of Broadband Diffusion on Teen Fertility Decisions Broadband (high-speed) internet access expanded rapidly from 1999 to 2007. This expansion is associated with higher economic growth and labor market activity. In this paper, we examine whether the rollout also affected the social connections teens make. Specifically, we look at the relationship between increased broadband access and teen fertility. We hypothesize that increasing access to high-speed internet can influence fertility decisions by changing the size of the market as well as increasing the information available to participants in the market. We seek to understand both the overall effect of broadband internet on teen fertility as well as the mechanisms underlying this effect. Our results suggest that increased broadband access explains at least thirteen percent of the decline in the teen birth rate between 1999 and 2007. Although we focus on social markets, this work contributes more broadly to an understanding of how new technology interacts with existing markets.

Background: Dental care utilization for low income pregnant women is met with challenges in the traditional dentist-centered model of care. County-level measures provide insights for policy and roles for stakeholders that extend beyond the dentist-patient relationship. We examined county-level data to generate hypotheses about factors that influence utilization of dental services in North Carolina’s Medicaid for Pregnant Women (MPW) program. Methods: County-level Medicaid utilization data for dental services for 2014-2016 were pooled to get mean county estimates of dental utilization in the MPW program. Descriptive statistics and multivariate regression models of dental utilization and county-level measures are presented. Data used were collected by NC Child and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings Reports. USDA Economic Research Service data were used to categorize counties in terms of Farming, Recreation, Persistent Poverty, and metro/non-metro status using ...

Latino population is one of the fastest growing minority groups in the United States. As the Latino population continues to increase, chronic diseases such as cancer and obesity will increase. Thus, the development of interventions that promote awareness of healthy eating and an ...

PEER REVIEWED Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI) programs incentivize Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants to purchase more fruits and vegetables. The Washington State Department of Health developed these maps of the state to 1) assess the geographic distribution of farmer's markets with FINI programs in relation to areas with high SNAP populations (>20% of households participate in SNAP) (panel A); 2) estimate the number of SNAP households with reasonable proximity to farmer's market offering FINI programs (panel B); and 3) identify farmer's markets that should be prioritized for future SNAP incentive programming.

The health of rural America is more important than ever to the health of the United States and the world. Rural Healthy People 2020's goal is to serve as a counterpart to Healthy People 2020, providing evidence of rural stakeholders' assessment of rural health priorities and allowing national and state rural stakeholders to reflect on and measure progress in meeting those goals. The specific aim of the Rural Healthy People 2020 national survey was to identify rural health priorities from among the Healthy People 2020's (HP2020) national priorities. Methods: Rural health stakeholders (n = 1,214) responded to a nationally disseminated web survey soliciting identification of the top 10 rural health priorities from among the HP2020 priorities. Stakeholders were also asked to identify objectives within each national HP2020 priority and express concerns or additional responses. Findings and Conclusions: Rural health priorities have changed little in the last decade. Access to health care continues to be the most frequently identified rural health priority. Within this priority, emergency services, primary care, and insurance generate the most concern. A total of 926 respondents identified access as the no. 1 rural health priority, followed by, no. 2 nutrition and weight status (n = 661), no. 3 diabetes (n = 660), no. 4 mental health and mental disorders (n = 651), no. 5 substance abuse (n = 551), no. 6 heart disease and stroke (n = 550), no. 7 physical activity and health (n = 542), no. 8 older adults (n = 482), no. 9 maternal infant and child health (n = 449), and no. 10 tobacco use (n = 429).

According to public health literature, a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is the process of using quantitative and qualitative methods to systematically collect and analyze data in order to understand the health status and needs of a defined population/community [1]. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires that all 501(c) (3) hospitals conduct a CHNA and adopt an implementation strategy to meet identified community health needs at least once every three years [2]. Non-profit hospitals that fail to meet the CHNA requirement of the ACA can be penalized through an excise tax issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These fines can be as high as $50,000 [2, 3]. The Meadville Medical Center (MMC) is a 249-bed non-profit community hospital located in northwestern Pennsylvania (Figure 1). The MMC in collaboration with local health services organizations and agencies began a multi-year CHNA project to meet the ACA requirements in 2013. The population served by the MMC includes the majority of residents in Crawford County, PA (~58,000 individuals). Crawford County is a rural community located 90 miles north of Pittsburgh, PA and 40 miles south of Erie, PA. Approximately 17% of the population in Crawford County lives below the poverty line; less than 20% of adults have completed a Bachelor's degree in spite of the fact that 87% have completed high school; nearly 18% of adults are senior citizens [4]. The city of Meadville, the Crawford County Seat, is home to approximately 13,000 residents as well as the MMC, Allegheny College, and city, county, and state governmental offices [5]. However, nearly a quarter (24.2%) of the city residents lives in poverty [4]. Although the ACA provides specific instructions about what to include in the CHNA process and reported documents, it provides little guidance about how a CHNA should be conducted. Our research team at Allegheny College [6] has been collaborating with the MMC to conduct a comprehensive CHNA during 2013-15. The methodology we have developed for the CHNA includes three fundamental objectives: (1) Developing community partnerships (2) Developing a mixed methods research protocol and (3) Disseminating valid and reliable results [7].

The most important conversation about health care in a generation is happening now. As proposals for health care reform are offered and debated, it is critical that the needs of Minnesota's rural women and families are included and addressed. While health care disparities affect women in every community, barriers to care for rural women are exceptionally complex. In Greater Minnesota, a combination of poverty, uninsurance, provider shortages, and simple geography merge to create significant obstacles to basic health care services that impede the health outcomes of rural women. Rural women of color and American Indian women experience all of the above barriers in addition to cultural differences, racism and discrimination, language barriers, and migratory patterns that further fragment access to needed health care. 1 More than 94% of Planned Parenthood's 64,000 patients are women, and nearly 60% live in rural Minnesota. This report contextualizes the health status of rural women, summarizing important public health indicators, examining barriers to improving health outcomes, and exploring solutions for addressing health care access among this often overlooked population.

The most important conversation about health care in a generation is happening now. As proposals for health care reform are offered and debated, it is critical that the needs of Minnesota's rural women and families are included and addressed. While health care disparities affect women in every community, barriers to care for rural women are exceptionally complex. In Greater Minnesota, a combination of poverty, uninsurance, provider shortages, and simple geography merge to create significant obstacles to basic health care services that impede the health outcomes of rural women. Rural women of color and American Indian women experience all of the above barriers in addition to cultural differences, racism and discrimination, language barriers, and migratory patterns that further fragment access to needed health care. 1 More than 94% of Planned Parenthood's 64,000 patients are women, and nearly 60% live in rural Minnesota. This report contextualizes the health status of rural women, summarizing important public health indicators, examining barriers to improving health outcomes, and exploring solutions for addressing health care access among this often overlooked population.

We also wish to thank the following organizations for providing written suggestions on themes, topics and areas of concern. Without their input and support, this local survey focused on the health of Houston and Harris County would not have been possible.

The most important conversation about health care in a generation is happening now. As proposals for health care reform are offered and debated, it is critical that the needs of Minnesota's rural women and families are included and addressed. While health care disparities affect women in every community, barriers to care for rural women are exceptionally complex. In Greater Minnesota, a combination of poverty, uninsurance, provider shortages, and simple geography merge to create significant obstacles to basic health care services that impede the health outcomes of rural women. Rural women of color and American Indian women experience all of the above barriers in addition to cultural differences, racism and discrimination, language barriers, and migratory patterns that further fragment access to needed health care. 1 More than 94% of Planned Parenthood's 64,000 patients are women, and nearly 60% live in rural Minnesota. This report contextualizes the health status of rural women, summarizing important public health indicators, examining barriers to improving health outcomes, and exploring solutions for addressing health care access among this often overlooked population.

The purpose of this article is to assess the quality of health and health care services available to rural Texans. Specifically, we seek to answer two related questions. First, do people living in rural areas of Texas generally suffer from poorer health than people living in urban Texas? One undoubtedly would think so, given frequent references to the low quality of personal services in general for rural America. Moreover, the persistence of the congressional Rural Health Care Caucus over the past two decades points to a rural health care crisis. Second, to what extent are these differences in health conditions explained by differences in access to health care enjoyed by people living in the two different regions? Access certainly appears to be the problem alluded to above. Rural people apparently lack physician care. In addition to providing answers to these questions, we also examine the difference in the health conditions and access to care enjoyed by minority and non-minority rural Texans. Is this a part of the rural health care problem given the high incidence of non-whites in rural Texas? lf so this may be minority rather than rural neglect. We briefly conclude the article with some recommendations for improving the problems we identify. Much of the literature on health care in rural America emphasizes the problems plaguing these areas. It is believed that rural areas confront a variety of problems in providing for the health care needs of their populations that urban areas can avoid. Distance is a formidable barrier. Although the majority of Texans live in urban areas, the territory designated rural in the state is as large as France. The 196 counties out of 254 counties that are designated rural in Texas comprise about 80% of the state's total area and are home to only 15.8% of the total Texas population. West Texas's Loving County, which has the smallest population of any county in the state, is home to just 117 people. Dispersion of this small rural population over such a vast expanse across the Texas land mass combined with inadequate transportation and lack of information is thought to have created serious health care problems. Fifty-eight rural counties do not have a large enough population or adequately concentrated population to allow the establishment of a single hospital. Twenty-three rural counties have no direct physicians and 35 are without participating Medicaid physicians. Together, these difficulties can create serious "interlocking barriers" (Guidry, Aday, Taleki, & Winn, 1995). Browne (1998, pp. 195-208) points out that these and related problems have plagued rural America for many years. In 1909 the Country Life Commission issued a report that rural populations were burdened by serious social problems such as poor communication networks, isolation, and limited transportation. These limitations made it difficult for these people to obtain adequate health care. Unfortunately, there was little interest in investing in nonfarm rural communities. Many rural Texans are also likely to have language barriers to meeting their health needs. More than thirty million Americans live in homes in which

Purpose There is a critical need to explore bariatric patients' perceptions of existing neighborhood and built environment resources and supports to assist with postoperative behavior change and weight loss maintenance. The objective of this study was to survey postoperative patients to determine neighborhood food retail, fitness facility, and options for outdoor activity access, utilization, satisfaction, and perceptions of resources. Materials and Methods A convenience sample of postoperative patients from a single academic surgical center in the USA (N = 44) completed an online survey about access, utilization, satisfaction, and safety for food retail, fitness facility, and outdoor activity options in their neighborhoods. Analysis included descriptives (frequency, percent, Chi-square), and independent samples t tests and ANOVA determined differences based on race, insurance status, geographic location, and receipt of governmental assistance programs. Open-ended questions were analyzed using summative content analysis. Results Patients reported the highest access to lower-cost national food retailers and fitness facilities. The most prevalent challenge in finding food products to meet patients' goals was financial (39%). Patients' top suggestions for fitness facilities included training staff/facilities (59%) and trainers (35%) in postoperative patient care and exercise. The highest access for outdoor activity options was for walking/running trails, city/metro parks, and sidewalks. Significant differences in access, utilization, and safety were found based on geographic location, receipt of at least one assistant program, and race. Conclusion The development of targeted resources may benefit patients in non-suburban areas and who receive governmental assistant programs to increase safety of outdoor options and access to lower-cost food retailers and to increase utilization of lower-cost fitness facilities. Keywords Resources • Neighborhood • Build environment • Social determinants of health • Support • Bariatric surgery Key Points 1. Patients reported the highest access to lower-cost national food retailers and fitness facilities. 2. The most prevalent challenge in finding food products to meet patients' goals was financial. Patients' top suggestions for fitness facilities included training staff/facilities and trainers in postoperative patient care and exercise. 3. Patients who received at least one governmental assistance program reported lower access to a discount grocer, lower satisfaction of wholesale retailers with bulk products, and less safety when using city and metro parks. 4. Patients in rural and urban areas reported increased safety concerns for using sidewalks, lower utilization of communitybased wellness centers, and less access to bulk discounted food retailers.

Background: Under the Affordable Care Act, nonprofit hospitals are required to conduct a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years. Using recommendations proposed by Georgia Watch, students and faculty members from the University of Georgia (UGA) conducted a CHNA for a hospital in a rural county in Georgia. The purpose of the CHNA was to identify community health problems and needs, as well as community assets and resources. The aim of this report is to describe the process for conducting the CHNA, the findings, and the lessons learned. Methods: The CHNA team consisted of students and faculty members from UGA's College of Public Health and a Public Service and Outreach professional who worked in the community. In completing the CHNA, the team used the following fivestep process: define community, collect secondary data on community health, gather community input and collect primary data, prioritize community health needs, and implement strategies to address community health needs. Primary and secondary data were collected. Results: By triangulating findings across data sources, the CHNA team created a community health profile for the service area of the hospital. Based on these findings, the community identified four main areas for improvement, prioritized these health issues, and developed an implementation strategy for the hospital and community. Conclusions: The process used to conduct this CHNA can serve as a model for other rural communities undergoing similar assessments. Lessons learned from completing this CHNA can be applied to future CHNA efforts.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of young people about social campaigns related to food and nutrition using as an example the campaigns 'I know what I choose' , 'The labeling of food products with GDA' and 'Cool kids do not eat junk food'. Material and methods: The survey was conducted in a group of elementary school students, junior high, and high school students. The final analysis of the survey enrolled 463 people whose questionnaires were completed correctly and returned. Schools participating in the study were randomized from all types of schools. Results: 63.9% of respondents demonstrated knowledge of the logo used in the campaign, 'I know what I choose'. The respondents were asked about a list of foods which had the information of the Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA). 72.0% of students, 42.1% of middle school students, 41.9% of high school students and 29.4% of primary school children were able to identify the product with GDA. Conclusions: Among the respondents, the detailed knowledge of each campaign was not satisfactory. The campaigns 'Cool kids do not eat junk food' and 'I know what I choose' were among the most well-known in the group of pupils in primary school and students. The GDA campaign was the best known in the group of students, but the ability to use the GDA label properly was low. In the study group, body weight did not significantly affect the level of knowledge about social campaigns. However, it was observed that the campaign 'I know what I choose' is better known by persons of normal weight than among people who are overweight or obese.

The State of Texas is home to nearly 2 million men, women and children with diabetes, over half a million of which reside in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) region. Recognizing the rising need to identify the disparities in implementing the diabetes prevention and management efforts and adopting the healthy life style in high diabetes prevalence areas in Dallas County, we explored the potential of Geographic Information System (GIS) methodology to analyze the data at zip code level from Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council (DFWHC) Research Foundation's data registry. The objectives of this research were to identify the zip codes with the highest prevalence of diabetes in Dallas County and to analyze the disparities that may relate to the higher diabetes prevalence. The process revealed the zip codes with the highest prevalence of diabetes and the disparities possibly influencing the higher prevalence. The results showed that the zip codes with the highest prevalence of diabetes had very few fresh food and supermarkets, food banks, parks, sidewalks and hospitals and clustered medical clinics, indicating that addressing these disparities may be a promising strategy for decreasing the prevalence of diabetes in these diabetes clusters in Dallas County. The strength of this research is DFWHC research Foundation's comprehensive data registry which allowed us to analyze the patient data up to the zip code level to identify the high diabetes prevalence areas. Our results have significance in the realm of public health and health care. With the identification of the contributing disparities in the high diabetes prevalence in Dallas County, public health efforts and resources can be more efficiently targeted and focused for prevention and management. Also in the future, we support improvements in health care data-sharing in order to improve coordinate care between different health care providers to prevent diabetes at an early stage and provide coordinated care at treatment and management stage.

The Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report: Community Profiles was created by researchers at the Gerontology Institute of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and commissioned by the Tufts Health Plan Foundation. In this report, we have created a custom profile of nearly 100 healthy aging indicators for every city and town in Massachusetts including the 16 neighborhoods of Boston (367 Community Profiles). Each Community Profile is designed to help community residents, agencies, providers, and governments understand the older adults who live in their cities and towns – their ages, living arrangements, health status, strengths, and vulnerabilities. Never before has Massachusetts had such a comprehensive view of healthy aging indicators reported at this local geographic level.

ReseaRCh and analysis by in CollaboRation with Gerontology Institute John w. mcCormack Graduate school of Policy and Global studies the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Data Report: Community Profiles was created by researchers at the Gerontology institute of the John w. mcCormack Graduate school of Policy and Global studies at the University of massachusetts boston and commissioned by the tufts health Plan Foundation. in this report, we have created a custom profile of nearly 100 healthy aging indicators for every city and town in massachusetts including the 16 neighborhoods of boston (367 Community Profiles). each Community Profile is designed to help community residents, agencies, providers, and governments understand the older adults who live in their cities and towns-their ages, living arrangements, health status, strengths, and vulnerabilities. never before has massachusetts had such a comprehensive view of healthy aging indicators reported at this local geographic level.