The input of residents, health officials, and stakeholders will aid in understanding barriers to improving health and ensure that what we recommend has incorporated what we have learned from community members. Our results and data from this study will be available to support informed decision-making. To involve each of the selected communities, we will:
- Survey county residents in order to support and fill data gaps to assess county risk factors. This will occur only in the 20 counties in the County Health Status Study.
- Interview key informants from various sectors to examine factors outside the health domain.
- Conduct focus groups with female community members in order to investigate causes of and solutions to the disparities in women’s life expectancy. This will occur only in the 10 counties of the Women’s Life Expectancy Study.
- Estimate health outcomes at the county level with additional data if possible. Requests will be made to counties as needed.
