# Presentation: 519065

## The American Community Survey:Practical Applications with Current Data

**U.S. Census Bureau**

- American Community Survey
- U.S. Census Bureau
- Summer 2001

**Notes:**
The American Community Survey is a survey under development at the Census Bureau.  It has been tested in 31 diverse sites across the U.S. for several years now and is slated for nation-wide implementation in 2003, pending funding approval from Congress.  The American Community Survey will provide long-form equivalent data – annually for areas of 65,000 or greater population, or by means of 3- and 5-year averages for smaller population groups.  The American Community Survey will eliminate the need for the long-form in 2010, allowing for a better population count in that census.

## Case Studies from The American Community Survey

- Real People Solving Real Problems

**Notes:**
“Real” people, not only researchers and academics, are using current data from a few American Community Survey sites to solve “real” problems identified by community leaders in a series of case studies conducted on behalf of the Census Bureau.
The problems identified by community leaders are current and vital to the well-being of a particular sector of the community and will benefit greatly from annual data supplied by the American Community Survey.  

## Case Study Topics Selected to Reflect Wide Scope of Interests to All Communities 

- Education
- Economic Development
- Issues of the Elderly
- Well-being of children
- Rural Issues
- Transportation
- Health Care

**Notes:**
Case studies were developed as a way to show other data users, as well as key decision makers, how data from the American Community Survey can be used to solve “real” problems that the community identifies. Case studies are a little like “model homes”.  The Census Bureau been talking to you and other groups for several years about the “blue prints” for the American Community Survey – how great it’s going to be, what you are going to be able to do with it, what it will do for your community.  With these case studies, we are now able to show you “model homes”,  the idea being that you customize this “model home” to suit your needs -- by using data for your community to solve this kind of problem.
We were concerned that our “model homes” reflect the needs of our data users so we selected an array of topics that would have appeal to most communities.  Those topics included:

	Aging/the elderly
	The well-being of children
	Transportation
	Education
	Health Care
	Rural concerns

## The American Community Survey: From Blueprints to Case Studies

***Fulton County, PA***
- rural needs and issues
***Bronx County, NY***
- strategic planning for community hospital
- identification and intervention for juvenile diabetes in special populations
***Multnomah County, OR***
- trends and changes in public school enrollment as influenced by immigration

**Notes:**
In addition to the assortment of topics, we wanted to represent a variety of community sizes.  Three are shown here – a tiny rural county in Pennsylvania of 15,000 people, the teaming melting pot of the Bronx with about 1.2 million residents, and a medium size city, Portland, Oregon, in the 1⁄2 million ballpark.

Community groups are currently using data from the American Community Survey to address issues:  from the need for mobile medical facilities, to the impact of immigration on public schools, to how to identify at-risk populations for juvenile diabetes.

## More Case Studies Underway

***Springfield (Hampden County), MA***
- intervention and prevention of youth violence
- late stage breast cancer detection and intervention
***Annie E. Casey Foundation***
- profiles on the well-being of children for KidsCount
***Franklin County, OH***
- use of administrative records and ACS data to determine homeownership rates
***Grandparents as caregivers***
- profile of this universe across the country

**Notes:**
Illustrated here are more case studies, including two still in the development phase:  
The Annie E. Casey Foundation will use data to develop a set of indicators to help assess the well-being of children in each state and across the nation.

"Grandparents as caregivers" is a project that will assess characteristics of that important group for the first time.
Let’s concentrate on case studies in Springfield, Massachusetts for a few minutes.  Springfield was so thrilled about annual data from the American Community Survey that they worked on two case studies, one on the prevention of youth violence and one on how to educate and intervene to lower the rates of late stage breast cancer in the community.

## Using the American Community Survey:Identification/Intervention for Health Programs

- The primary purpose of this study is to identify geographic areas and demographic groups in Springfield, Massachusetts which are at high-risk for late stage breast cancer in order to:

-   determine where breast cancer
-    screening efforts should be intensified.

***LATE  STAGE  BREAST***

***C***
***A***
***N***
***C***
***E***
***R***

-   design effective breast cancer screening
-    and education programs.

**Notes:**
The intent of this case study is to investigate late stage breast cancer, a serious concern, in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Older women are dying because they are not finding out they have the disease or because they are not pursuing treatment.  The City questions why these women are not getting the treatment or screening that would diagnose the disease in an earlier, treatable stage.

	Are facilities hard to reach?  Is there adequate public transportation?
	Are women aware of the facilities?  The risks of breast cancer? 
	Are they able to read?  Are they able to read English?
	Are they avoiding treatment because of the expense?
	Is lack of education a factor in delaying treatment?
	Which community groups would be most appropriate to partner with 	for intervention?

## American Community Survey Data Used in Conjunction with other Local Data Sources

**American Community**
** ****Survey**

**Health Department**

- Data Partners in
- Springfield, Massachusetts
- Case Studies

**Notes:**
Springfield utilizes other local data sources in conjunction with the American Community Survey. Local partnerships are established between public and health service entities like the local police, planning groups, medical facilities, schools, and other public organizations. 

## Federal Data Partner:  The American Community Survey

**American Community**
** ****Survey**

- Population characteristics
- Socioeconomic indicators
- Demographic characteristics

- Housing data
- Transportation data
- Age distribution

**Notes:**
The American Community Survey provides annually refreshed data including population characteristics, demographic characteristics and age distribution. These data play an important part in the Springfield case studies, by providing comparable, high quality measures throughout the decade.

Yearly data from the American Community Survey provides a community with consistent and comparable data.  The community doesn’t have to try to match different data sources for different periods.  A single source – the American Community Survey -- can provide the same data every year to complement data from local sources.

## Integration of Data From the American Community Survey and Health Records

- Integration of American Community Survey data and health data can be used to:
- identify the location of high-risk groups.
- design demographically appropriate intervention strategies.
- assess resource needs.
- provide up-to date demographic information to track changes in the location and composition of the population at risk over time.

**Notes:**
While the American Community Survey does not supply information about breast cancer, it does provide related factors and indicators like poverty, education, age of housing stock, etc., that can be combined with health data from local sources to identify and target populations and geographical areas at greatest risk or need for intervention.

## American Community Survey DataComplements Hospital Data Sources

- Employment
-     Status

- Poverty
- Level

***Data Sources for***
***Late Stage Breast Cancer Study***

- Education
- Level

- Stage at
- Diagnosis

**Notes:**
The American Community Survey data complements hospital data source as shown in the puzzle. The role of the American Community Survey in this project is to provide the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the community, particularly for women over age 40.  The puzzle pieces represented in pink are those bits provided by the American Community Survey that Springfield finds essential to their solution.  These include education and poverty levels, age groups, public assistance received and primary language spoken at home, to name a few.  Data from the medical partners are shown in green and deal most often with indicators of breast cancer:  tumor size, diagnoses characteristics and patient characteristics.  

Piecing together these two sources completes the puzzle and hopefully brings Springfield and other communities to solutions for unique issues.

## American Community Survey Data Provided by Springfield’s Police Sectors

- Using common geography (police sectors) allows analysis of
- demographic characteristics associated with the geography
- where late stage breast cancer is known to exist.

**Notes:**
Here is an example of the American Community Survey data aggregated to match the city’s police sectors.  Using GIS (geographic information system), Springfield maps the location (by police sectors) of late stage breast cancer cases. They can then analyze the demographic characteristics that are associated with this geography.  This will help determine where they should implement preventive strategies.

## Using American Community Survey Data:Public Assistance Received by Sector

- In order to achieve an understanding of the economic environment of the  community at-risk for late stage breast cancer, we mapped the total amount of public assistance received by the city’s police sectors.

***To interpret 3D maps:***
- The darker and taller
- the sector, the more assistance received.

- Sector F (center) received nearly 1/4 of all public assistance given in Springfield.

**Notes:**
Springfield analyzed the economic data that the American Community Survey provides to determine at risk communities shown here are data on public assistance received by “sectors” or neighborhoods of the City.  The community developed these sectors, aggregating census tracts up to a statistically acceptable population size, to develop a User Defined Area (UDA).The way you read the map is the tallest sector, labeled sector F, in the center of the slide, has the greatest allocation of public assistance.  That sector received nearly $5.5 million or roughly one-quarter of total public assistance given to the City.When these data are mapped on top of other characteristics, like the incidence of late stage breast cancer, certain inferences can be drawn about how poverty may be a factor in screening, diagnosing, or treatment.

## For More Information

- E-mail us at *cmo.acs@census.gov *
- Call us at 1-888-456-7215
- Visit American Community Survey Web site at *<www.census.gov/acs/www>*
- Or visit the Census Bureau’s Web Site at *<www.census.gov>*
- Click on “Subjects A-Z”
- Click on “American Community Survey”

**Notes:**
For more information please contact the American Community Survey through email, phone or internet.