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San Francisco releases 2016 Community Health Assessment, flags economic barriers and racial inequities
Summary
Department of Public Health presented the 2016 Community Health Assessment outlining methods (data analysis, prior-assessment review, community engagement), identifying two foundational issues (economic barriers and racial health inequities) and seven priority needs; staff will draft a community health improvement plan due mid-2016.
Michelle Kurian, who leads the Community Health Assessment Impact Unit, presented the 2016 Community Health Assessment to the Health Commission, describing three data-collection methods (secondary population-health analysis, assessment of prior assessments and community engagement) and saying the study analyzed 177 variables and screened 46 prior assessments (21 met inclusion criteria).
Kurian said the assessment identified two cross-cutting foundational issueseconomic barriers to health and racial health inequitiesand seven priority health needs: psychosocial health; healthy eating; safety and violence prevention; access to coordinated culturally and linguistically appropriate services; housing stability and homelessness; substance abuse; and physical activity. She noted improvements in some areas (more than 97,000 residents gained insurance under the Affordable Care Act in 2014; steady declines in HIV diagnoses) but also areas where San Francisco performed poorly in statewide comparisons (excessive drinking, income inequality, certain injury deaths).
Commissioners asked for more detail and clarity in the appendices and suggested the assessment should better surface some continuing communicable-disease concerns (tuberculosis, syphilis and chlamydia) even if those items are not listed among the top-level needs. Commissioners also asked for clearer maps and ZIP-code/neighborhood crosswalks, additional language prioritization details, and explicit notes where small sample sizes prevented statistically stable estimates for some subpopulations (for example, transgender residents).
Kurian said the department will finalize edits and then use the assessment to develop a community health improvement plan (CHIP) and a population-health division strategic plan; the CHIP was expected mid-2016. Staff emphasized the assessment is one of several documents that together will guide public-health program priorities and resource allocation.
No vote took place on the assessment at this meeting; staff introduced a resolution to be considered at the May 3 meeting.
