Explainers

ZIP Code Risk: Impacts of Social Determinants of Health on Schools, Communities, and Families

November 6, 2019

Contact

Jennifer Wessel, JD, MPH
Senior Policy Analyst and Data Privacy Officer
501-526-2244
JBWessel@achi.net

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Conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. These conditions are known as social determinants of health.

Efforts to improve the health of a community are informed by an understanding of the social determinants of health in that community. Knowing how these determinants vary between geographic locations aids in developing solutions to ZIP code risk, or risk based on where people live. ZIP code risk can be a factor not only in inequality of health outcomes but in inequality of related outcomes such as school performance.

This map utilizes City Health Dashboard data mapped at the elementary school level for the following three measures within the Little Rock School District:

  • Children in poverty
  • Adults in frequent mental distress
  • Adults in frequent physical distress

This map is the first of a series of dynamic tools ACHI is providing as a resource to allow stakeholders to look at data sets for specific school districts as they work to address issues facing those districts. Maps for Fayetteville and Fort Smith will be issued at later dates.

Definitions of Three Measures:

  • For City Health Dashboard information:
    • Frequent mental distress: Adults 18 or older who reported experiencing poor mental health for 14 days or more in the past month (source: 500 Cities Project Data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, one-year modeled estimate).
    • Frequent physical distress: Adults 18 or older who reported experiencing poor physical health for 14 days or more in the past month (source: 500 Cities Project Data, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016, one-year modeled estimate).
    • Children in poverty: Children younger than 18 living in households at or below 100% of the federal poverty level (source: 2017 American Community Survey, five-year estimate).
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