Social Determinants of Low Birth Weight: Lessons Learned in Spatial Analysis of Sub-County Health Outcomes – 3/12/2015
Speakers: Thomas Talbot, MSPH, Chief, Environmental Health Surveillance Section, New York State Department of Health; and Tabassum Insaf, MBBS, MPH, PhD, Research Scientist, New York State Department of Health
Objectives:
With the increasing availability of spatial analyses tools and small area health data, public health departments can now link socio-demographic and health data to describe, analyze and present social determinants of health outcomes. This presentation will focus on various methods to evaluate and model spatial heterogeneity in health outcomes and their determinants. It will use examples from New York State Department of Health’s Social Determinants of Low Birth Weight project to demonstrate the issues involved and the various options available for analyzing spatially auto-correlated data at a fine scale level. We will also discuss the interpretation of findings from these analyses and their application in identification of priority areas of public health action.
After this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Identify methodological challenges in spatial analyses of public health data.
- Describe the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches for analyzing social determinants of health outcomes.
- Apply and interpret the results of such analyses of social determinants of health outcomes in their own jurisdictions.