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Advancing the public health workforce to achieve organizational excellence
Improving Access to Physical Activity: Taking on Health Disparities

Date: 7/22/2016 8:38 AM

Related Categories: Quality Improvement

Topic: Performance Management and Quality Improvement, Strategic Planning

Tag: Community Health Improvement Plan, Partnerships, Quality Improvement Application, Driver Diagram, Technical Assistance

Jessica Montana, MPH, CHES is the REACH Program Coordinator at the Cabarrus Health Alliance in Kannapolis, NC.

 

In Cabarrus County, NC, our public health and other community leaders understand that health disparities – often along racial and ethnic lines – are a genuine and formidable barrier to improving community health. At the Cabarrus Health Alliance we want to reduce chronic disease health disparities with a focus on increasing access to healthy foods and beverages, increasing access to physical activity opportunities, and improving clinical and community linkages. Efforts targeting underserved African American and Hispanic members of the community take many forms, but local groups have not always had a coordinated strategy or been aware of each other’s work.

 

With funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) grant program, the Cabarrus Health Alliance formalized partnerships with stakeholders, including leaders in government, schools, healthcare, health and fitness, transportation, research, and the faith community to help align these efforts. During a Physical Activity for All Summit attended by these partners in May 2016, Public Health Foundation (PHF) experts facilitated a training and advised the participants on development of a Population Health Driver Diagram for Enhancing Physical Activity Opportunities for All. This driver diagram aims to reduce disparities in access to physical activity opportunities for everyone in the community and to reduce the burden of chronic disease related to lack of physical activity.


The 55 stakeholders at the Physical Activity for All Summit helped to refine the tool, which has since been put into action by the Cabarrus Wellness Coalition. The Coalition was founded in response to the 2012 Community Needs Assessment which identified obesity and diabetes as priority areas for the county and is currently focusing efforts on increasing opportunities for physical activity. Using the momentum built through the Physical Activity for All Summit, we continue to work in partnership with the Cabarrus Wellness Coalition to improve access to physical activity with targeted efforts aimed at addressing the primary and secondary drivers in the population heath driver diagram.

 

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A population health driver diagram can help any community achieve population health improvement. To learn more, contact Ron Bialek at rbialek@phf.org or (202)218-4420. You can also submit your information online.


 

 


 

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