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| | Toward
a Community Health
Report Card - Electronic Version Healthy
Cities' Measures of Community Well-BeingThe
Healthy Cities initiative, which has followed the WHO Health for All by the Year
2000, has triggered great interest and activity in the development of what, in
our model, would be called measures of community well-being. There is no consensus,
nor is that the intent of the Healthy Cities initiative, on a set of community
well-being measures. Each city is expected, through a broad-based, participative
approach, to develop their own list of indicators. The U.S. Health Corporation
has, however, attempted to facilitate this process by developing a "Healthy Community
Assessment: Standard Indicators Menu." This "Menu" identifies 11 indicator areas
and for each of them provides a menu of possible indicators. They have also taken
the additional step of specifying "Basic Need Indicators," which might be interpreted
as a minimum list for all to consider, somewhat analogous to the CDC indicator
list for the U.S. The 11 areas with the Basic Need Indicators, as well as some
alternatives, are listed below:
- Natural
Environment
- Days
with air quality in good range
- Health
Status
- % without
health insurance
- %
without emergency medical transport
- Infant
mortality rate
- %
low birth weight ratio
- Food
- % reporting hunger
- % using food banks
- Education
- % functionally illiterate
adults
- Economy
- Unemployment rate/# fulltime
equivalent jobs
- Poverty/Equity
- % children living below
poverty line
- Gini coefficient/distribution
of income class
- Housing
- Homeless rate
- Census of soup lines
- Arts/Culture/Recreation
- City financial support per
capita
- Transportation
- % people commuting less
than 25 minutes
- Community
Safety
- % people
feeling safe walking alone at night
- %
people reporting being victim of crime
- Social
Environment
- % people
reporting less than 5 social contacts per week
- Government/Politics
- % people registered who
vote in municipal elections
- Built
Environment
- Perceived
annoyance/urban stress index
Prepared
byCarl
H. Slater, M.D., Associate Professor, Health Services Organization University
of Texas School of Public Health Houston, TX Phone:(713)500-9183 FAX:(713)500-9171
E-mail [email protected] |
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