From Knowledge Center
New Haven Health Atlas Background Information
Please visit the New Haven Health Data Atlas Main Page for more information and links.
Introduction to the New Haven Health Data Work Group
The New Haven Health Data Work Group (previously Community Solutions) commissioned this New Haven Health Data Atlas of statistics and trends to serve as a baseline documenting New Haven’s health history and inform public and private decisions allocating resources (funding, staff time, and community efforts) to improve health and community stability. The atlas presents about 60 indicators on New Haven’s health and related economic, social and educational determinants of health. Inspiration for the report comes both from past New Haven efforts and numerous reports that have helped define and prioritize health issues in cities across the country.
The data show stability and improvement in some New Haven indicators over the past decade. New Haven has made great strides in the area of childhood lead poisoning, with cases of elevated blood lead levels in children under 6 decreasing by 37% between 2002 and 2006. Additionally, New Haven has seen a decrease in child abuse and neglect, and middle school students score higher on standardized tests than those in Bridgeport and Hartford. However, there remain a number of very crucial indicators that lag behind accepted levels, and require our immediate, collective attention.
The Work Group, under the leadership of the New Haven Health Department, will continue to maintain and enhance our data-based understanding of New Haven health issues and to inform the work of the local community and the health care system leadership to address the health issues identified here. Challenges include communicating the findings widely at both citizen and leadership levels, implementing evidence-based improvements in services, supporting coalition building and advocacy for more effective action, and securing additional resources through more effective grant writing by collaborative groups, coalitions and individual organizations.
The challenge is not limited to health and the health care system -- research and our own experience has demonstrated strongly that social, economic and education indicators strongly predict poor outcomes in health and represent a major challenge in our community. City and community-level institutions and organizations working in education, housing, economic development and safety have crucial roles to play in addressing indicators in their areas of expertise that affect the health and well-being of our community. To facilitate such collaboration, the table on the following two pages displays the indicators of greatest need in the first column, candidate community goals and strategies to address each indicator in the second column (based on recent literature and local experience), and a call for collaboration to the economic, education and safety partners in the third column.
-- New Haven Health Data Work Group, 2009
About the Social Determinants of Health
Topic sections in the New Haven Health Atlas are organized based on the social determinants of health. The World Health Organization defines these:
"The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including the health system. These circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power and resources at global, national and local levels, which are themselves influenced by policy choices. The social determinants of health are mostly responsible for health inequities - the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries."
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