Variations in the health conditions of 6 Chicago community areas: a case for local-level data.
OBJECTIVE
Although local-level chronic disease and risk factor data are not typically available, they are valuable for guiding public health interventions and policies. To present a case for disaggregated community-level health data, we conducted a study exploring the relevance of such data to research on health disparities.


METHODS
We designed a population-based health survey to gather information on many health measures, 13 of which are presented here. Interviews were conducted with 1699 adults (18-75 years) in 6 Chicago community areas between September 2002 and April 2003.


RESULTS
Statistically significant variations in health measures were found between the 6 communities themselves (108 of 195 pairwise comparisons were significant) and between the communities and Chicago as a whole (35 of 54 comparisons were significant).


CONCLUSIONS
The local-level variations in health revealed in this study emphasize that geographic and racial/ethnic health disparities are still prominent in Chicago and shed light on the limitations of existing city- and regional-level data.
Shah
Ami M
AM
Sinai Urban Health Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago, IL 60608, USA. suhi@sinai.org
Whitman
Steven
S
Silva
Abigail
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005191:Family Characteristics / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D015438:Health Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000145:classification* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017062:Small-Area Analysis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014504:Urban Health