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To increase its data-driven decision making, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has an applied evidence-based public health approach and tools to identify, select, and measure reduction in four priority injury problems in Colorado: motor vehicle-related injuries, older-adult falls, suicide, and prescription drug overdose.
METHODS:
The state public health department in Colorado applied an evidence-based public health approach developed by Ross Brownson and colleagues. This department adapted it to include developing a logic model with measureable objectives for short-term and long term outcomes in injury prevention. The injury leadership team used data and information from an expert panel of external advisors, its injury strategic plan, its injury data report, the evidence on effective injury strategies, the Colorado of winnable battles initiative, and written guidance from the National Center on Injury Prevention and Control on SMART objectives to make decisions about its priorities and activities under a specific funding stream.
RESULTS:
The department created a logic model for each of four priorities that led to 17 strategies or activities. It selected 31 specific, relevant measurable objectives that measure proximal or short-term outcomes and distal or long-term outcomes of these strategies that have federal funding for the next four years. Thirteen of these objectives have baseline data using existing periodic surveys and surveillance systems traditional to public health. Strategies new to the department or where a partner has had a lead role were less likely to have existing baseline data for the proximal measure or the baseline was zero.
CONCLUSIONS:
This work successfully used existing data, highlighted the need to collect additional data to measure progress, and raised again the challenges of measuring significant change with limited resources for public health surveillance and for public health reach. States can replicate this approach to better align and measure progress and outcomes in injury prevention, to increase data-driven decision making, and communicate outcomes to funding agencies.