Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 1, 2026
Assessment of Child Anthropometry in a Large Epidemiologic Study
Published on: February 2, 2017
Data for Community Health Assessment in Rural Colorado: A Comparison of Electronic Health Records to Public Health
Margaret J Gutilla1, Arthur J Davidson, Matthew F Daley
1Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado (Ms Gutilla and Dr Marshall); Public Health Informatics, Epidemiology and Preparedness, Denver Public Health, Denver Health, Denver, Colorado (Dr Davidson); Institute for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente, Denver, Colorado (Dr Daley); and Department of Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado (Drs Anderson and Magzamen).
Context:
Community-level data are necessary to inform community health assessments and to plan for appropriate interventions. However, data derived from public health surveys may be limited or unavailable in rural locations.
Objective:
We compared 2 sources of data for community health assessment in rural Colorado, electronic health records (EHRs) and routine public health surveys.
Design:
Comparison of cross-sectional measures of childhood/youth obesity prevalence and data quality.
Setting:
Two rural Colorado counties, La Plata and Prowers.
Participants:
The EHR cohort comprised patients 2 to 19 years of age who underwent a visit with the largest health care provider in each county. These data included sex, age, weight, height, race, ethnicity, and insurance status. Public health survey data were obtained from 2 surveys, the Colorado Child Health Survey (2-14 years of age) and the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (15-19 years of age) and included caregiver and self-reported height and weight estimates.
Main Outcome Measures:
We calculated body mass index percentile for each patient and survey respondent and determined overweight/obesity prevalence by county. We evaluated data source quality indicators according to a rubric developed for this analysis.
Results:
The EHR sample captured approximately 35% (n = 3965) and 70% (n = 2219) of all children living in La Plata and Prowers Counties, respectively. The EHR prevalence estimates of overweight/obesity were greater in precision than survey data in both counties among children 2 to 14 years of age. In addition, the EHR data were more timely and geographically representative than survey data and provided directly measured height and weight. Conversely, survey data were easier to access and more demographically representative of the overall population.
Conclusions:
Electronic health records describing the prevalence of obesity among children/youth living in rural Colorado may complement public health survey data for community health assessment and health improvement planning.
More Related Videos
04:46'Boden Food Plate': Novel Interactive Web-based Method for the Assessment of Dietary Intake
Published on: September 18, 2018
11:21Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Related Concept Videos
01:08Data Collection by Observations
An astronomer viewing the motion and brightness of stars in the sky and recording the data is an example of observational data collection. A botanist recording...
01:30Methods of Documentation VII: EMR
01:05Data Collection III
The principles to begin the physical assessment include conducting a comprehensive or problem-related history in a quiet, well-lit room, emphasizing privacy and comfort for the...
01:26Introduction to Epidemiology
01:30Primary Healthcare Services
In 1978, international leaders convened in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, for what would be a pivotal event in global health. The Alma-Ata Declaration was the first to call...
01:24Obesity