The detailed health profiles of dozens of Baltimore City neighborhoods offer a way to target services and measure successes, health officials said.
“For us, this is just the start of the conversation,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein.
Health officials will be reaching out to hundreds of community organizations in the city to alert them to the health profiles of 55 communities released this week. These groups and the Baltimore City Health Department can then better plan outreach efforts.
“We really wanted it to be useful for communities,” Sharfstein said.
The reports, compiled with help from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, detail basic demographic information, life expectancy, cause of death, birth outcomes and rates of lead poisoning.
Health officials recognized the limitations of the information, most of which were averages from 2000 to 2006. Some information, such as data on smoking, diet and exercise and chronic diseases, was not available.
The profiles showed drastic variation among neighborhoods. Some residents die nearly 20 years earlier on average than residents in other neighborhoods.
Yet these disparities may not be surprising, considering the obvious gaps in the city, officials said.
“You drive around the city and you see huge differences in the neighborhoods, and you see it in health,” Sharfstein said.
About half of the gap in mortality rates can be explained by income — with lower-income residents dying sooner than those earning more — but there are other factors as well, he said. This means economic development and other programs are necessary to improve the public health.
Health officials can use this information to measure the progress of their outreach, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who was familiar with reports.
All local agencies, such as those in charge of housing and economic development, should be interested in the data and seeking ways to improve public health, he said.
“It’s not just a Health Department issue,” Benjamin said.
Such a local picture of a city’s health is rare, as most assessments look at the whole city or go county by county, Benjamin said. Health officials around the country should mimic Baltimore’s efforts, he said.
Dr. Peter Beilenson, former Baltimore City health commissioner and now Howard County’s health officer, said the information was “useful” for targeting interventions and proving programs work.
However, he was skeptical a profile of Howard County’s neighborhoods would offer too many surprises.
“I am not sure how much this edifies or illuminates something we don’t know,” he said.
