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Purpose and
User Guide - PDF document
Purpose and User Guide
As in previous editions, The Health
of Washington State, 2007 assesses
health status and related topics that
are important to the Washington State
Department of Health’s (Department)
mission of protecting and improving
health in Washington. Insofar as
possible, each chapter provides:
Comparative data for counties and the
state as a whole and for Washington and
the nation
An overview of what we know about
public health problems in Washington and
what we can do about them
Information resources for making
policy decisions, prioritizing efforts,
managing programs, developing budgets,
and allocating resources.
The Health of Washington State, 2007
serves as a primary source document for
some topics. For others, it is more
useful as a “gateway” document,
providing readers basic information and
directing them to more detailed
information available elsewhere. It can
serve as a source of data for policy
decision making and program planning,
but it is best used as a starting point
for data-based decisions. For example,
if a program wanted to allocate
resources to counties based on need, it
might want to develop county data
similar to that in The Health of
Washington State, 2007 for additional
time periods to assure that the counties
with high rates of disease have been
consistently high. The program might
also want to look at the numbers of
people with disease to obtain additional
perspective on the magnitude of the
problem in each county.
This edition covers 62 topics grouped
into ten sections. As with previous
editions, The Health of Washington
State, 2007 includes topics that affect
- The health of many people in
Washington
- Relatively few people but might
result in serious outcomes, such as
death or disability
- Relatively few people but might
affect larger numbers if not well
controlled (such as infectious
diseases and environmental
pollution).
Because effective actions are
essential to improving health, The
Health of Washington State, 2007 focuses
on topics for which there are proven
public health interventions. For
example, it does not include a chapter
on prostate cancer, because public
health interventions continue to be
ill-defined. The Department also needed
personnel to write the chapters.[1]
Thus, while The Health of Washington
State, 2007 highlights many issues of
importance to health in Washington, some
health-related topics are not included.
Most chapters in The Health of
Washington State, 2007 identify a major
indicator to discuss in relation to the
topic. The indicator represents an
important aspect of the topic, but data
availability also affected the choice of
indicators. A single indicator rarely
gives a complete picture, and most
chapters contain a section discussing
measures of impact and burden in
addition to the primary indicator. Some
chapters present more than one major
indicator, and some are divided into
several sections, each with a major
indicator.
Most chapters in The Health of
Washington State, 2007 are in a
standardized format that includes:
- A definition of the topic and of
the major indicator
- A summary
· Trends over time, including the
most recent data, to describe the
magnitude of the problem in Washington,
allow comparisons to the United States,
assess whether Washington is improving,
and identify emerging problems
- National and state goals for
2010
- The major indicator by county,
age, gender, race, Hispanic origin,
income, and education to identify
health disparities
- Additional measures of impact
and burden
- Known risk and protective
factors
- Public health interventions,
such as what strategies work best
and how effective they are in
reducing illness and maximizing
health, including documenting
current Department strategies
- ·Sources for additional
information about the topic.
Some chapters also include maps that
show regions with high rates of the
major indicator independent of
geopolitical boundaries.
The format described above works best
for specific diseases, causes of death,
injuries, and events related to
pregnancy and birth for which
considerable data are available. This
format is less useful in other areas,
particularly the sections on
environmental health and health care
systems. Consequently, chapters in those
sections might follow a different
structure.
This report shows what we know
generally about health status, risks to
good health, and health care in
Washington. It also identifies gaps in
our monitoring data; in our knowledge of
underlying processes by which disease,
injury, disability, and premature death
affect us; and in our knowledge of
proven approaches for improving health.
To help the reader develop a more
complete context for understanding the
data presented in this report, The
Health of Washington State, 2007
includes two appendices.
Appendix A:
Technical Notes explains analytic
approaches. It also provides
explanations of elements of the charts
and graphs that were too cumbersome to
include in the text.
Appendix B:
Data
Sources provides information on data
sources used in more than two chapters.
This appendix explains how the data for
each source are collected; the strengths
and limitations of the data; and the
years of data availability, including
why different years of data are
sometimes used in seemingly similar
situations.
Data in this document might differ
from those presented in other Department
publications or in publications of
federal, local, and other state
organizations. While there are
guidelines and commonly used conventions
for many definitions and analytic
methods, there are few fixed standards.
Definitions and methods that work best
for one purpose might not be best in
another context. Where relevant, each
chapter discusses differences between
definitions and analytic methods in the
chapter and those used elsewhere, such
as in Healthy People 2010. Because of
these differences, care must be taken
when comparing data from this document
to data from other publications.
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[1] The Washington
State Department of Labor and Industries
wrote the Occupational Health section.
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