This collaborative effort between CPHN and Lewis County Community Health Partnership employed GIS, an increasingly valuable tool in researching the relationship between the social, economic and physical environment and health outcomes. The aims of this project were to:

(1) Build a GIS database for Lewis County from existing data that describes the physical, social and economic environments of the county, geographic access to healthy foods, fluoridated water, physical activity, medical and dental health care, health outcomes, and other data of interest to community leaders.

(2) Engage the Lewis County Community Health Partnership in planning, updating, and using a GIS database as a tool for addressing health disparities, especially those associated with oral health, nutrition and physical activity in Lewis County.

(3) Pilot methodologies for exploring relationships between spatial data and health outcomes.

Concurrently with the development of the GIS database, Shoko Kumagai partnered with Community Health Partnership to conduct an environmental assessment and apply spatial data through GIS tracking  for use in planning a school intervention.  High school and middle school students assisted with the the nutrition and physical activity environmental audits at their schools.

• Project Update 1 - March 2005 (PDF)
• Examining School Nutrition Environment - June 2005 (PDF)
• Application to the Northwest/Alaska Center for Oral Health Disparities (PDF)
• Presentation - Building a Geographic Information Systems Database in Lewis County, WA: Assessing Obesity, Nutrition and Oral Health in a Community-University Partnership - Feb 2006 (PDF)