Partnering to Understand: An Investigation of Health Disparity in the Communities Surrounding a University Health Sciences Center

BACKGROUND: Oklahoma's health ranking is seventh to last in America. More specifically, the health in the four zip codes surrounding the Oklahoma University Health Science Center (OUHSC) in is among the lowest in the state. The primary purpose of this study was to understand, in collaboration with community members and partners, why health disparity persists in this area. The specific aims for this study included: uncovering trends and patterns related to health in the area surrounding the OUHSC and partnering with families who live in the surrounding neighborhoods to understand perspectives regarding persistence of health disparity. METHODS: The research used community-engaged research methods including historical document reviews, windshield tours, and community member and partner interviews. RESULTS: The five themes reflecting the triangulation of data were: "they don't care" (i.e., the university and community decision-makers), "sense of mistrust," "unconducive environment," "diminished sense of community," and "wrong side of the tracks." These results suggest feelings of ineffective communication, consistently overlooked racial tension, a lack of willingness to understand, and impoverished environments as primary contributors to the persistence of health disparity. The poor health in the communities surrounding the OUHSC cannot be remedied by the availability of allied health programs alone but require relationship building, listening, and mobilizing the community. J Allied Health 2014; 43(1):3-11.PARTNERING with communities versus assessing individuals recognizes the complex, interconnected, and dynamic contexts in which people live.1 Such partnerships are needed to address the widening health inequalities within the United States and abroad. Allied health professions, with our backgrounds in health, wellness, and disability, are uniquely situated to form partnerships with communities to combine efforts to minimize health disparity. The purpose of this paper is to understand the health disparities that exist in a community that surrounds a local university in order to inform future interventions aimed at minimizing those disparities.The journey for two allied health rehabilitation science professors began when presented with health information from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. We learned at this presentation that children and families in the State of Oklahoma, and in particular Oklahoma County, were considered unhealthy in the most recent national and local data reports. According to America's Health Ranking, the health of the population of the state of Oklahoma ranked 43rd in 2012,2 a ranking that dropped from 31 in 1990. Oklahoma families are challenged by a high prevalence of smoking and obesity, limited availability of primary care physicians, poor mental and physical health, and a high rate of deaths from cardiovascular disease.2 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked Oklahoma County "poor" in their state county health outcomes.3In a statewide wellness score profile, Oklahoma City families living within four zip code communities surrounding the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) received the lowest health rankings in Oklahoma County.4 The 2000 census data indicated 24.25% of households in these four Oklahoma City zip codes have no personal vehicle access, 34% of individuals are below the poverty level (9.38% of families), and 50% of all families with children below the age of 18 are single-mother households. The three categories showing the largest deviation from the median scores were transportation, emergency department utilization, and crime.4 These zip codes were identified as having a substantially lower income, a lower percentage of college graduates, and poor overall wellness scores.4Because of the obvious health disparity surrounding the health sciences center, we implemented a community-engaged research study. The primary purpose of this study was to understand, in collaboration with community members and community partners, why health disparity persists in the areas surrounding the OUHSC. …