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LA County Unveils New Health Data Tool
Telfair Elementary school children cast shadows as they arrive at Operation School Bell in Pacoima, California.
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Los Angeles County has launched a new, searchable database focused on health and wellness.
Users can look up and track more than 100 key health indicators, such as community safety or smoking rates in 179 communities.
The Community Health Profiles website covers the majority of the county, including cities, unincorporated areas, supervisor districts, neighborhoods within the city of Los Angeles and city council districts with populations over 20,000.
The site allows users to compare those geographic areas, said L.A. County Public Health chief science officer Rashmi Shetgiri.
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“We have over a hundred indicators that are a combination of traditional health outcomes and health behaviors to broader determinants of health, such as healthcare access, and then social, economic, and environmental determinants of health, such as poverty, housing, and environmental conditions,” Shetgiri said.
The website will be updated continually with new health data. It’s only available in English, and does not include Pasadena or Long Beach data, instead linking to their respective health departments.
The data can be used to reveal stark inequities among geographic areas, Shetgiri said.
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LA County Unveils New Health Data Tool
“For example, in eight communities, life expectancy is less than 75 years," she said. "Whereas in five communities, it's greater than or equal to 85 years, which is more than a 10-year difference within the same county.”
The website can also be used to help target policy and prevention strategies by looking at multiple indicators in one community, Shetgiri said.
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In an effort to make the data as accessible and user-friendly as possible, the website has multiple interactive formats, including a map-based platform and comparison tool that allows for side-by-side evaluations of multiple geographies and community specific reports with detailed insights tailored to each area, according to the county.
“This data is so valuable and so important,” said Akil Bell, grants and contracts manager at Black Women for Wellness, a reproductive justice nonprofit in L.A, that plans to use the data for grant applications.
“When we go after funders that are looking at how to support reproductive justice, environmental justice, sex education, this data will allow us to communicate with the folks that are funding organizations that are statewide but don't know much about L.A.,” Bell added.
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