AN EPIDEMIOLOGIC APPROACH TO ASSESSING PRIMARY-CARE NEEDS IN RURAL ILLINOIS

One persistent problem that faces state and federal health policy-make rs is determining the level of primary care needs of the citizens they serve. To refine the decision-making process in Illinois, a model was developed to compare the 84 rural countries of Illinois and their pot ential need for additional primary care interventions. Using experi pa nel methods, a group of public health professionals selected a set of 31 health status indicators that were available at the country level t hroughout the state. Next, the panel developed a weighting system for those indicators. These weighted values were then applied to the demog raphic and epidemiologic data from each of the counties to rank the co unties on the basis of need. Indicators having the highest correlation with the weighted sum were the percent of the population enrolled in Medicaid, lung cancer mortality rate, general population mortality rat e, proportion of population at poverty level, and percent of births to teens. Data also showed that the rural countries with the greatest ne eds clustered in five geographic regions. The identification of these five geographic clusters may facilitate collaborative efforts in meeti ng the primary care needs of these populations.