Measuring Comprehensive Community Initiative Outcomes Using Data Available for Small Areas (original) (raw)

Area Head Start agencies maintain records on children enrolled in Head Start and on individual Head Start programs. The files contain each child's address, Head Start center location, enrollment date, and other selected family and child information. These records are confidential and their format and availability differ across local agencies. Head Start records can be geo-coded and aggregated to calculate rates of Head Start enrollment in small areas and distances between children's homes and the centers they attend. Matched with school enrollment files, Head Start records can be used to calculate preschool participation rates. Health-Related Data Sources Health is defined not merely as the absence of disease but as overall physical, mental, and social well-being. Although vast improvements have been made in the area of preventive health in the last 50 years, health indicators in many low income communities in the United States compare unfavorably with the overall high national standard of health (Geronimus, Bound, Waidmann, Hillemeier, and Burns, 1996). Well-established methods allow researchers to track many of those indicators using small area data (Gould, Mahajan, and Lucero, 1989). Vital Records The registration of births, deaths, fetal deaths, and other vital events is a state and local function. The civil laws of every state provide for a continuous, permanent, and compulsory vital registration system. The state vital statistics office issues certificates