Community/campus partnership: tailoring geographic information systems for perinatal health planning.
BACKGROUND
Geographic information systems (GIS) are seen as potentially important additions to traditional methods of studying risk factors in maternal and child health, but little is written on actual GIS use by communities. This article describes how one community-university collaboration used GIS for perinatal planning.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to determine whether utilizing GIS could help a community to identify risk and develop potential interventions to address perinatal health problems.


METHODS
We tested the use of GIS over a 9-month period, using community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods. Diffusion of innovations (DOI) theory guided this work.


RESULTS
This collaboration resulted in the development of a perinatal GIS model that helped community members to decide where to focus interventions and in continued use of GIS for planning.


CONCLUSIONS
Close collaboration early in the planning process, coupled with the incorporation of DOI theory, is necessary for communities to use GIS to plan perinatal interventions.
Caley
Linda M
LM
University of Buffalo, School of Nursing
Shiode
Narushige
N
Shelton
James A
JA
D000293:Adolescent; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D018672:Community Health Planning; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D018743:Perinatal Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012424:Rural Population; D055815:Young Adult