Continuing its commitment to the most comprehensive assessment of the health needs of California's diverse population, The California Endowment recently awarded a $2.75 million grant to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research to support the 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS).
The grant will support key sections of the statewide telephone survey concerning community health and access to care and will help researchers gather valuable information on several hard-to-reach ethnic and rural populations.
Moreover, the grant, together with other funding, will bolster the value of this leading health resource that collects essential information from thousands of California households on a wide variety of health topics, such as access to medical care, health insurance, chronic illnesses, children's health, health-related behaviors, housing and demographics. Policymakers, health advocates, providers, researchers and many others look to the CHIS as the most reliable source of ongoing data on the health status of California adults, adolescents and children.
"The California Health Interview Survey is a critical tool for informing the most important health policy decisions that confront us," said Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and CEO of The California Endowment. "It enables us to identify what communities in the state are hardest hit by the burden of preventable health conditions and diseases so we can target resources more efficiently. Moreover, CHIS provides The Endowment with an invaluable tool for measuring progress in our efforts to reduce health disparities among the state's underserved communities."
The endowment's grant will support the collection and analysis of CHIS 2007 data on community health and health disparities, insurance coverage, access to care and issues related to culturally competent care. It will also help researchers get a richer picture of California's diverse population by funding an oversampling of Asian ethnic subgroups and people living in rural areas. Furthermore, the grant will ensure that this important information gets into the hands of the various groups that need it most by supporting the broad dissemination of survey data and publications.
With this new grant, The California Endowment's total contributions to CHIS over the last decade exceed $13 million, which does not include additional support that the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has received for research and community trainings.
The California Endowment was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The endowment makes grants to organizations and institutions that directly benefit the health and well-being of the people of California.
"We are pleased that The California Endowment recognized that the California Health Interview Survey is a vital resource for those working statewide and at the local level to improve the health of all Californians," said E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and professor at the UCLA School of Public Health.
Initial data and results from the 2007 California Health Interview Survey will be available in late 2008. Other supporters of the 2007 California Health Interview Survey include the California Department of Health Services, the National Cancer Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, First 5 California, L.A. Care Health Plan and others.
Conducted every two years, CHIS is a collaborative effort of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, the California Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute. For further information on the California Health Interview Survey, visit www.chis.ucla.edu.
The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research was established in 1994 and is one of the nation's leading health policy research centers. It is also the premier source of key health policy information for California. The center is based in the UCLA School of Public Health and is affiliated with the UCLA School of Public Affairs. For more information, visit the center's Web site at www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu.
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