1. Activity: Public Health Surveys
2. Project leader: Pauline Thomas, MD, Assistant Professor; Thomasp1@umdnj.edu
3. Mission/ Vision:
To understand and use survey techniques to measure the health of the population
• To develop models for collection and effective use of data for prevention and improved health care delivery
• To work in partnership with state and local government to build bridges between silos, leading to better strategic use of scarce public health resources to solve problems
4. Staff and faculty participants:
William Halperin, MD, DrPH, Professor and Chair; halperwe@umdnj.edu
Marian Passannante, PhD, Associate Professor; passanna@umdnj.edu
Bart Holland, PhD, Associate Professor; holland@umdnj.edu
Patricia Fleming, PhD, MS, Professor; Flemingpl@umdnj.edu
Peter Wenger, MD, Associate Professor; Wengerpn@umdnj.edu
Donald Louria, MD, Professor, Chair emeritus; louriado@umdnj.edu
Stanley Weiss, MD, Professor; weiss@umdnj.edu
Daniel M. Rosenblum, PhD, Program Coordinator; Rosenbdm@umdnj.edu
Denise James MD, Assistant Professor; Jamesdn@umdnj.edu
5. Specifics about the activity:
The Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, in partnership with other departments, the Newark DHHS, and the New Jersey DHSS, assesses current available data and designs and implements community surveys of residents of the greater Newark metropolitan area. Drs. Passannante and Louria have surveyed Newark's population in the past, in cooperation with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. Dr. Wenger participates in planning and analysis of the National Immunization Survey, in cooperation with the Newark Department of Health and Human Services.
Currently Dr. Thomas is exploring the possibility of doing additional surveys may be modeled from national and statewide surveys, including BRFS, YRBS, PRAMS, NHIS, and NHANES.
Survey data are used to plan and measure the success of overall public health and health care delivery in the area, as well as focus on persons who would most benefit from further or different public health interventions and assistance.
• Surveys are done by telephone, as door-to-door surveys, by mail, or in selected venues (e.g. community centers).
Existing surveys are reviewed and health profiles of selected communities are produced, and shared with the community's public health partners
• Surveys are always focused to provide information on ways to improve health outcomes
6. Publications:
(cite Dr. Louria publications, Dr. Halperin text book on surveillance, also select pertinent past publications from Fleming, Holland, Passannante, and Thomas)
MARIAN R. PASSANNANTE, John French, and Donald B. Louria, "How Much Do Health Care Providers Know About AIDS?", American Journal of Preventive Medicine , 9(1)6-14, 1993.
MARIAN R. PASSANNANTE and Donald B. Louria, "Responses of Health Care Professionals to Proposed Mandatory HIV Testing", Archives of Family Medicine , 2:38-44, 1993.
MARIAN R. PASSANNANTE, Robert A. Restifo and Lee Reichman, "Preventive Therapy for the Patient With Both Universal Indication and Contraindication for Isoniazid", Chest, 103(3): 825-831, 1993.
MARIAN R. PASSANNANTE, Cornelius T. Gallagher, and Lee B. Reichman, "Preventive Therapy for Contacts of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), A Delphi Survey", Chest , 106(2): 431-434, 1994.
Alan Manaker and Marian Passannante, Peripheral Nerve Surgery and Neurosurgeons: Results of a National Survey of Practice Patterns and Attitudes, Journal of Neurosurgery, 98:1159-164, 2003.
7. Related web sites:
City of Newark
Epidemiology
Public Health Surveillance
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Center for Health Statistics
8. Opportunities for Students:
Students are invited to submit project proposals for:
-design theoretical new surveys, providing justification (e.g. data needed and not otherwise available)
-additional modules to be included on existing surveys
-interviewing experience
-analyzing survey data (can be existing data from NJ BRFS etc, or from survey student designs)
Students are encouraged (required) to take Passannante survey course and Holland sample selection course prior to proposing projects.
9. Opportunities for volunteers: None at this time.
10. Hidden text and key words:
Mail surveys; Delphi surveys; Public health practice; Health; Health practice; community surveys; chronic disease; surveillance; immunizations; behavioral risks; public health surveillance; public health surveys
11. Date revised: March 1, 2005