Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the Grantmakers Health Bulletin.
In Clifton, New Jersey, data on poor children, data on obesity, and data on the percentage of uninsured residents showed such disparities across neighborhoods that the city approved Browse a satellite medical office. Now, residents who previously had difficulty getting health checks, immunizations and other essential public services have better access.
In Waco, Texas, a nonprofit that used the COVID Local Risk Index, a measure of the city and neighborhood level of COVID mortality and transmission, to determine the level of COVID risk by neighborhood. Comparing this data with the city’s COVID cases added important context for communities to prepare for and respond to the pandemic.
Both of these cities use data from the City Health Dashboard (“Dashboard”). Launched in 2018, Dashboards address data inaccessibility for cities and communities.
Just as health disparities are detrimental to people of color and those with little financial means or educational attainment, so data cannot be accessed. Largely based on a combination of where they live and how easy it is to access and use data, some people may be getting the data they need to advocate for better, more inclusive practices and initiatives. Sufficient resources needed for healthy communities. Others can’t — because they don’t know where to find the data they need, don’t have the expertise to use, or the data doesn’t exist. Low data volumes make it difficult to obtain information, interpret it, and then use it to take the necessary steps to improve public health.
Dashboard recently partnered with the New Jersey Health Initiative (NJHI)—a statewide grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—to change that, by providing community organizations, partners themselves and the communities to which they make accessible data can make a difference.
The dashboard provides more than 35 health-related metrics and updates them regularly. The dashboard is particularly useful because it provides census tract-level data (neighborhood-sized geographic areas between 1,200 and 8,000 people), essentially allowing health advocates to know what is happening in each community. That’s important, because — in part because of discrimination by race, ethnicity, income, and other factors — stark health disparities often exist in neighborhoods, even in the same small town.
Until recently, that didn’t help much for smaller communities. Initially, Dashboards launched with data from the 500 largest US cities, those with populations of at least 66,000. However, in April 2020, Dashboard added data on more than 250 smaller cities across the US, including 18 in New Jersey — 10 of which are in the newly launched NJHI Small communities create the Hyper-Local Data Collaboration Initiative. NJHI grants to organizations in those communities, all of which are located south of New Jersey, will equip advocates with detailed measures of health determinants to guide direction. local solutions. This pilot project will serve as a model for other states and for regions within New Jersey.
What kind of data can the project access? In the city of Egg Harbor, New Jersey, the cardiovascular disease mortality rate was 358 per 100,000 people, compared with an average of 211 per 100,000 across all 750+ cities on the Dashboard. The city also has a relatively high uninsured rate among residents — 23.2 percent, compared with 11 percent in other cities on the Dashboard. This is invaluable information for public health advocates and local governments.
With detailed, easy-to-use data that includes categories such as uninsured percentage, childhood poverty, housing cost burden and mobility, concerned residents can identify actionable gaps in health and its dynamics, so they can target programs and policy changes and build coalitions to address them. NJHI will also train advocates to develop expertise to interpret the data and put it into action. Dashboards welcome these types of partnerships to build data capacity in the community.
In “A Study in Scarlett,” Sherlock Holmes observed, “It is a mistake to theorize before data is available.” But you can’t use what you don’t have. Putting more data — and its usability — into the hands of more people allows people to help make their communities the place where everyone has the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.
By bringing data to more people, City Health Dashboard is helping to support communities where everyone has the opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.
About the author
Ben Spoer, PhD, data team manager at City Health Dashboard.
Becky Ofrane, MPH, is a leading partnership public health researcher for the City Health Dashboard.
