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| Home > FHOP News > November 2005 | ||
FHOP Express November 2005 |
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Home Visiting Survey
Racial and Ethnic Disparities
Home Visiting Report
Do We Have a Trend?
Longitudinal Statistics
Upcoming FHOP Trainings
Product Releases & Updates
Do We Have a Trend: A Beginners Approach to Analysis of Linear Trends in Community Health Indicators. These guidelines are intended for both program managers and epidemiologists without advanced statistical training. They summarize the rationale for and basic principles of trend analysis where there is a linear pattern. There are instructions for how to use the EXCEL function under Charts “Add a Trendline” for plotting and analyzing trends and provide references for those who wish to pursue more advanced analyses. They provide a foundation for understanding the new FHOP spreadsheets that automatically generate trend lines for the required MCAH indicators. This document is posted in Publications on the FHOP website.
Useful County Data Resources
Longitudinal Statistics - This website has longitudinal statistics 1992-2004 on admissions to California Youth Authority. Because of the relationships between mental health, child maltreatment, and substance abuse in the adolescent population, counties may find this information helpful.
<Report No Longer Exists>
Trainings
The Trend Analysis training that was rescheduled for November 16, 2005 is now CLOSED! The training will be held in San Francisco. This is a one-day workshop designed for staff with training and experience in epidemiology, statistics or data analysis. Monitoring health outcomes over time is an essential part of evaluating program impact. "Eyeballing" graphs to see if indicator values appear to be increasing or decreasing without evaluating statistical significance may result in making incorrect conclusions. Thus, it is important to learn the proper analysis to assess trends and draw conclusions. The definition, concepts and statistical methods for determining the slope, intercept, spline, and their significance will be discussed. The new FHOP web based MCAH indicator databooks and trend graphs will also be reviewed at this training, and FHOP staff will guide you through the templates for your county.
Program Evaluation 1 is OPEN and scheduled for December 7th in Sacramento.
FHOP is busy planning trainings for the next year. With the input gathered from the training questionnaire, taken by MCAH staff, and from the Training and Technical Assistance Workgroup, topics over the next year will include Program Evaluation, Trend Analysis, Data Methods, and EpiHOSP. Please visit the FHOP > Training for more training information.
Spotlight
Disparities in Health Care (cont'd from above)
...including fewer routine medical procedures, even when access-related factors, such as patients’ insurance status and income, are controlled. In trying to understand the causes of these disparities, one area of inquiry involved the clinical encounter. The research reviewed indicates that stereotyping, biases, and uncertainty on the part of healthcare providers can contribute to unequal treatment. There is also evidence suggesting that sociocultural differences between patients and providers influence both communication and clinical decision-making. Patient-provider communication is directly linked with patient satisfaction, adherence, and health outcomes.
Efforts to reduce disparities include cross-cultural education of health care providers that focuses on attitudes, knowledge, and skills. The IOM sees cross-cultural education as a promising tool for improving the ability of health care professionals to provide diverse patient populations with quality care and thereby reduce disparities in health outcomes. They go on to recommend that cross-cultural education be integrated into the continuing education of health professionals and the training of future health professionals.
Smedley, B.D., Stith, A. Y., & Nelson, A.R. (eds.) (2003). Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Institute of Medicine. Washington: The National Academies Press.
Home Visiting
The home visiting draft report was summarized at the MCAH Action meeting in October, and FHOP is working on finalizing the report. FHOP will continue further analysis on program staffing, models and evaluation components of the home visiting programs reported in the questionnaire.
As of October 1st, 2005, 63 respondents from 30 local health jurisdictions had returned the questionnaire. For MCAH Directors who are still interested in completing the questionnaire, please fill out the questionnaire here. If you are unable to fill out the questionnaire online or have questions, please contact FHOP.