Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Although local-level chronic disease and risk factor data are not typically available, they are valuable for guiding public health interventions and policies. To present a case for disaggregated community-level health data, we conducted a study exploring the relevance of such data to research on health disparities. METHODS: We designed a population-based health survey to gather information on many health measures, 13 of which are presented here. Interviews were conducted with 1699 adults (18-75 years) in 6 Chicago community areas between September 2002 and April 2003. RESULTS: Statistically significant variations in health measures were found between the 6 communities themselves (108 of 195 pairwise comparisons were significant) and between the communities and Chicago as a whole (35 of 54 comparisons were significant). CONCLUSIONS: The local-level variations in health revealed in this study emphasize that geographic and racial/ethnic health disparities are still prominent in Chicago and shed light on the limitations of existing city- and regional-level data.