Understanding and Demonstrating the Need for Inclusion of Military Affiliated Populations in Local Community Health Assessments Conducted in Eastern North Carolina
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: Background: Eastern North Carolina is home to large military affiliated populations (MAPs) which not only impact community health but also utilize local health-related resources. Local health departments (LHDs) maintain awareness of the collective health status of residents largely through the community health assessment (CHA) process. Due to the importance of the CHA to overall community health, it is also essential to include MAP data, particularly in jurisdictions with large MAPs. However, little is understood about the current representation of MAP data in local CHAs and the perceived need of including such data.Purpose: The purpose of this project was to assess the level of MAP inclusion in community health assessments and explore military and civilian health professionals’ perceptions of current and future representation of MAP data in CHAs.Methods: Four eastern North Carolina county CHAs were assessed to determine the prevalence of MAP data. MAP-identified data points, defined as information, mentions, analysis of data, or statistics affiliated with the military, were notated and enumerated, and frequency distributions by data point were created. Qualitative analysis was used to examine summaries and subsequent themes from phone interviews conducted among a purposive sample of eight civilian and military health personnel, key informants who were asked questions about current MAP-related CHA data collection practices and future needs of MAP inclusion in CHAs.Results: MAPs were only minimally represented in the four CHAs reviewed. Only one CHA did any analysis of a community-identified health issue to determine how it was connected to MAPs. Many of the MAP-identified data points in the CHAs were not directly related to the health of MAPs and provided only contextual information about the military installations located in the communities. All key informants interviewed agreed that MAPs should be included in CHAs, even though some barriers to data sharing and participation in the assessment process exist, and that this inclusion benefits the entire community.Conclusions: Although MAPs were not well represented in the four eastern North Carolina (NC) counties, both the civilian and military health professionals interviewed deemed it important to collect such data in CHAs. Recommendations offered included nine strategies for maximizing the opportunity for inclusion of MAP data. This work and the identified recommendations provide the foundation for exploring the opportunity for data inclusion in these and other MAP-represented counties in NC and strategies for developing future interventions to use these data to meet the health needs of MAPs and relevant resources shared by the civilian population.
DOI: 10.17615/kmzp-mf71
Author: Brown, Pamela
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2964712300