From Knowledge Center

Connecticut Community Health Data Scan

About

The Community Health Data Scan for Connecticut was developed by the Connecticut Health Foundation (CHF) for several purposes:

To help the Foundation set priorities for funding programs and policy studies
To help citizens better understand a range of key health risk, health care, and health outcome issues
To provide state policy-makers and community leaders with information that can be used in developing sound public policy

The Data Scan reports quantitative data on the social characteristics, health and well-being of Connecticut’s residents gathered from a variety of sources at the federal, state and town levels, as well as from non governmental sources. Some data presented in the analyses will be superseded in the near future, indeed, by the time of publication. Indicators were selected that typically change only slowly over time, such that the major study conclusions are unlikely to be affected. This document is not intended to be an exhaustive report on all possible health indicators for Connecticut.

CHF has transferred all results of the Data Scan to the Connecticut Commission on Health Equity (CCHE) to help fulfill CCHE's mission to eliminate disparities in health status based on race, ethnicity, gender and linguistic ability, thereby improving the quality of health for all of the state's residents. CCHE, with continuing support from CHF, has developed this portal to make the results and data available to the public.

Racial and ethnic disparities are one of the main concerns investigated in the Data Scan. This issue provided a consistent theme for the analysis, along with a report of data on different kinds of communities arrayed in Health Reference Groups (HRGs). The Data Scan provides an analysis of the data, prioritizes areas for health promotion effort and includes six recommended focus areas. This report does not focus on children’s mental and oral health since CHF is already addressing these problems and other reports focus on these topics.