New Data Insights: Adverse Childhood Experiences, Climate Change, Preparedness, and More

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Naomi Rich

This entry is part 33 of 41 in the series Focus on Accreditation and Innovation

The PHAB Research and Evaluation team shares examples of accreditation insights found via the Data Portal and other PHAB data sources related to ACEs, climate change, and preparedness.

Almost two years ago, the Public Health Accreditation Board introduced our new Data Portal, a data visualization tool to explore accredited health department performance data. Users can explore data related to Standards & Measures, population health outcomes, and more. In this JPHMP Direct blog, the PHAB Research and Evaluation team shares examples of accreditation insights found via the Data Portal and other PHAB data sources related to adverse childhood experiences, climate change, and preparedness.

What did we learn? Key insights include:

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Documentation submitted for most Domains in Version 1.5 of PHAB Standards & Measures included examples of work related to ACEs.
Measure 10.2.3 had the greatest number of ACEs-related examples.
- Measure 10.2.3: Communicated research findings, including public health implications
  - The purpose of this measure is to assess the health department’s efforts to keep others, both within and outside the public health profession, informed about the findings of public health research and the public health implications of those findings.
- Examples of work conducted on ACEs by accredited health departments included:
  - Presenting to public health professionals or community members about the impact of ACEs on overall health; community data on ACEs; or prevention and response strategies
  - Conducting trainings for local health departments and other agencies on how to increase protective factors for ACE prevention
  - Revising or identifying health priorities regarding prevention of ACEs within the CHAs/CHNAs, community health improvement plans, or strategic plans
  - Conducting a community assessment of ACEs and their consequences for local stakeholders

Climate Change

According to Annual Reports submitted to PHAB from 2015 – 2020, 39.6% of accredited health departments (109) reported conducting work related to climate change.
Examples of work conducted by accredited health departments related to climate change included:
Assessment and identification of the jurisdiction’s climate-related hazards to determine the HD’s strengths and vulnerabilities, and to identify the populations at risk. These results were used to build a social media toolkit that is used during climate-related events and to build local emergency preparedness plans.
Creation of a stakeholder group to identify the health effects of climate change, which will be used to develop the HD’s strategic plan. Through partnership and development of the stakeholder group, stakeholders identified health departments as having an important role in the coordination of activities and a structure to support collaboration.
In a HD whose municipality is within one of the worst major U.S. cities for air pollution, they are placing sensors to track, monitor, and capture air quality data. This data will be used to suggest behavior change, provide evidence for policy and institutional changes, and generate alerts that can be used for making decisions by local stakeholders.

Preparedness

PHAB initially accredited health departments (n=386) perform slightly better on preparedness measures compared to all measures.
State health departments perform slightly better on preparedness measures compared to local health departments.
Health departments that serve larger populations typically had a higher percentage of preparedness measures Largely or Fully Demonstrated than health departments that serve smaller populations.
PHAB accredited health departments’ performance differs by preparedness measure.

Interested in learning more about another public health topic? There are many ways to engage:

Explore the data portal – share your insights with PHAB via email at research@phaboard.org. Users do not need to log in to access visualizations with combined, disaggregated data. Accredited health departments can log in to view data specific to their health department.
Check out PHAB’s Public Health Learnings.
Share your idea for PHAB’s next insights learning with the PHAB Research & Evaluation team.

Author Profile

Naomi Rich: Naomi Rich is a Program Specialist at PHAB, where she provides administrative and strategic communications support to the Public Health National Center for Innovations and Program, Research, and Evaluation teams. Prior to joining PHAB in 2020, Naomi applied a community organizing lens to her work in political campaigns, nonprofits, and a communications agency. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Community and Regional Development from the University of California, Davis.