SELECTION OF KEY COMMUNITY DESCRIPTORS FOR COMMUNITY-ORIENTED PRIMARY-CARE

Background. Community-oriented primary care (COPC) requires the develo pment of practical tools if it is to be carried out. A previous study demonstrated a practical approach to carrying out one portion of a com munity assessment for COPC using a few representative health indicator s. Objective. To determine the validity of this process elsewhere, we tested whether these findings were generalizable to other settings and to the same setting a decade later. Method. In a cross-sectional stud y design, data on 18 health indicators were collected for census tract s in two target areas and for the entire state of Ohio, USA, for 1990. A factor analysis was performed to identify factors underlying the he alth indicators in the three areas examined. Results. Two underlying f actors, termed age and poverty, were present in all locations and over time. Each factor was defined by core indicators and a cluster of ass ociated indicators. Conclusions. These results suggest that one part o f a COPC community assessment can be done by selecting very few indica tors. The distribution of indicators of age and income explains the va riability of most of the health related indicators studied. These fact ors are stable over time and location. A community assessment should i nclude indicators which, at a minimum, provide information on these tw o factors.