Health Maintenance Consortium Resource Center (HMCRC) Web Site

HMC Supplement Progress Report - DEPRESSION

February 2006

Supplement Title: The Role of Depression and Context in Health Behavior An Administrative Supplement to:
Preventing Suicide Risk Behaviors: Long Term Change

Supplement Chair/
Affiliation: Brooke Randell, DNSc, CS - University of Washington School of Nursing

Purpose: To apply an ecological framework of neighborhood effects on individual health by exploring the relationship between depression and health change for a broad set of health outcomes – suicide risk, sexual practices, diet adherence, and smoking cessation – and specifically exploring how the context in which an individual is embedded contributes to and moderates these effects.

Depression
Sharepoint Group: Sharepoint Contact – Karen Snedker
(In addition to HMCRC Members)

Ralph DiClemente	rdiclem@SPH.EMORY.EDU
Jerald Herting	herting@u.washington.edu
Laurie Pulver	Laurie_Pulver@URMC.Rochester.edu
Brooke Randell	bprand@U.WASHINGTON.EDU
Eve Rose	erose2@sph.emory.edu
Deborah Toobert	deborah@ORI.ORG
Jessica Sales	jmcderm@emory.edu
Karen Snedker	snedker@u.washington.edu
Geoffrey Williams	Geoffrey_Williams@URMC.ROCHESTER.EDU

Progress to Date: The lead site has received approval from the University of Washington’s Human Subjects Division for the supplemental grant. Other sites are at various stages of the process of receiving human subjects approval.

The lead site has created a geocoding protocol that details the procedure for address matching and adding neighborhood-level variables. Each site is currently getting their data in the appropriate format as detailed in the protocol.

The necessary geographic information systems and mapping software, ArcGIS version 9.1 (ESRI), has been installed on computers at the lead site. In preparation for the geocoding process, the lead site is currently collecting US Census TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system) street files for each county in all of the studies.

Challenges to Date: Minor challenges associated with data formatting procedures (data encryption, multiple addresses and multiple assessments) have been resolved.

Next Steps: Addresses will be geocoded, home addresses will be paired with a unique geocode and the census tract, using ArcMap by the lead site. In the process of geocoding, troubleshooting for unmatched addresses will be shared between the lead site and each site. Neighborhood-level variables (at the census tract level or zip code level depending upon availability) from a variety of public datasets including the U.S. Census Bureau will be collected for each census tract in the counties in the study in preparation for being matched to the individual-level anonymous data from each site. The lead site will explore the operationalization of additional neighborhood-level variables beyond census measures for inclusion in the model. Discussion about these neighborhood variables will be made as we proceed throughout the process.