P82 Creating Performance Indicators to Guide Activities to Reduce Gonorrhea (GC) Health Disparities in Target Communities: Region IV Infertility Prevention Project (IPP) Areas (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Hyatt Exhibit Hall
Patti Bunyasaranand, MS1, Cassandra Malone, MPH1, Dawn Middleton, BS2 and Kelly Morrison Opdyke, MPH2, 1Center for Capacity Development (Atlanta Office), Cicatelli Associates Inc, Atlanta, GA, 2Cicatelli Associates Inc, New York, NY

Background: In 2009, after developing action plans to reduce GC health disparities, the Region IV IPP developed performance indicators to evaluate impact of GC screening activities in target communities (TC).

Objectives: To consider the role of performance indicators in identifying opportunities for and impact of activities to reduce GC health disparities.

Methods: Indicator data was collected for CY2006-2009 from GC Case Report and IPP Prevalence Monitoring data systems for 7 states in Region IV. Data for females from 3 states were analyzed comparing trends from CY2008-2009 in # of GC tests performed and cases identified from IPP Prevalence Monitoring (PM) Data in TC, and # of GC cases reported from STD Case Report Data at state and TC levels. Data were stratified by gender and geographic region.

Results: State A Case Report Data revealed decreasing trends in reported GC cases at state and TC levels (9% and 4% respectively) and 16% increase in GC cases in TC from PM data. State B Case Report Data revealed decreasing trends in reported GC cases at state and TC levels (23% and 20% respectively) and 0% decrease in GC cases in TC from PM data. State C Case Report Data showed decreases in reported GC cases from both case report and IPP PM data. IPP sites reporting data remained stable in States A/B and increased in State C. Number of GC tests conducted remained stable in States A/B and increased in State C.

Conclusions: GC indicators, derived by combining two widely available data sets, were useful in describing state-wide vs. TC trends in GC cases and can inform future activities to decrease GC disparities.

Implications for Programs, Policy, and Research: Widely available data sources can be used to simply estimate the impact of program activities and to inform improvement efforts in low resource areas.