In order to appropriately direct agency activities and funding priorities the Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) chapter of the March of Dimes commissioned a comprehensive needs assessment focusing on maternal and child health. The SEPA region is very diverse including counties that rank both first and last in the state on a composite measure of overall child well being. The range across counties on several important demographic characteristics are, (1) percent African American (42.2% - 3.10%), (2) families with children under 18 living below the poverty line (30.3% - 4.9%),(3) unemployment rate (7.6% - 4.0%) and (4) percent of live births to unmarried mothers in 1994 (62% - 16.1%). In addition to a demographic profile of the region, the needs assessment addresses the health status of women, pregnancy and infant health, the impact of type of health insurance and an analysis of regional and state health services. Within each content area the region is compared to the Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives. For example Healthy People 2000 establishes a goal that no more than 12% of women aged 18-44 will smoke. It is projected that by the year 2000 this figure will be approximately 29% in the SEPA region. Other areas that will not meet the year 2000 objectives are; (1) the rate of gonorrhea in the 15-19 year old population, the African American population and the female population ages 15-44, (2) the overall and African American infant mortality rate, (3) percent of children 2 years of age or younger who are fully immunized, and (4) percent of women receiving early prenatal care.Regionally specific needs assessments should be utilized to focused increasingly limited resources.
