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Objective: The Act on Data (AOD) workgroup is part of the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) Diabetes Council whose purpose is to bring together epidemiology, evaluation, and program staff to improve access to and use of data for program planning and decision making. One 2009 strategic plan goal was to improve understanding of social determinants of health (SDOH) by creating a standard list of SDOH data indicators that state/territory diabetes programs can use when making program decisions.
Methods: The AOD workgroup meets bimonthly by conference call. SDOH was the main topic for three calls—SDOH basics; review of a SDOH data set directory; and SDOH examples from the field. An ad hoc workgroup formed, met to review the Data Set Directory of Social Determinants of Health at the Local Level, and agreed to adopt the evaluation criteria used by the DDT National Objectives Workgroup (feasibility, mutability, consistency with national policy objectives, and availability of data at the county level) to recommend a short list of critical SDOH indicators to the full AOD workgroup.
Results: The ad hoc workgroup created an Excel document combining the data set directory with evaluation criteria, and through five elimination rounds, honed down the original list from more than 180 to 12 indicators of particular interest to diabetes programs. The list of 12 SDOH indicators are in review by the AOD workgroup.
Conclusion: Next steps are to finalize the list with 5-12 indicators, deliver to state and territory programs, and implement pilot projects with at least two programs.