Part D. Data Communication

In Montrose, Colorado, community members participate in a nutrition education class.

Case Study: Mixed-Methods Approach Through Community Health Assessments Community: Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington is a suburban city in Indiana with an almost equal proportion of Black and white populations (46 percent versus 50 percent, respectively). The Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department manages the Banneker Community Center, which has a rich history in the Bloomington community, particularly for their African American community members, as Banneker was the first African American school in the city. Over the years, the center transformed as an avenue for community members to congregate for events, such as nutrition education, family dinners, physical activities and many others. To continue to improve this space and ensure it meets the needs of the community, staff at Banneker — in collaboration with partners at the Indiana University School of Public Health — created and implemented a Community Health Assessment. Questions in this assessment included both quantitative and qualitative questions, so that they can highlight the numerical significance of the community needs (i.e., percent of homes that are unable to access food) along with the story behind them (i.e., reasons behind the inability to access food, such as transportation). This assessment is ongoing as they maintain communication with their community members on their desire for the program and ensure their needs will be met through their plans for improvement.

After learning about a variety of ways to collect and analyze data, it is important to consider how to interpret the results appropriately and effectively communicate them to key audiences.

Resources – Further Reading Guide to Science Communication58 Qualitative Data Communication Tips59

Appropriately interpreting the results involves describing your study sample and being transparent about biases, limitations and challenges. Describing your sample will be based on the descriptive data from the quantitative analysis, particularly the demographic characteristics of the sample, which will help the audience understand how to interpret and apply the results. Audiences mainly will be interested in findings that are applicable to specific communities intended to participate in the