WA- MCH (Maternal and Child Health Data Report Analysis Project)
State: WA

Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Internship summary
The internship project will be housed in the Maternal Child Health (MCH) section of Community and Family Health, Washington State Department of Health (DOH). The MCH Program works to promote an environment that supports and encourages the optimal health of all women of childbearing age, infants, children, adolescents and their families. Maternal and Child Health has five major program areas: Children with Special Health Care Needs, Child and Adolescent Health, Maternal and Infant Health, Genetics, and Immunizations. The intern will be located within the MCH Assessment Section, which provides assessment services to all four areas.

Purpose
The purpose of this project will be to update chapters of the Maternal and Child Health Data and Services Report and create a new chapter on maternal morbidity and mortality. The report is a resource primarily for public health professionals on the health status and service needs of pregnant women, infants, children and adolescents in Washington State. In addition to being a component of our MCH Block Grant Needs Assessment, it represents an ongoing effort to put these measures into broader context and to use this information to develop and evaluate programs and policies. The student will update up to 5 chapters of the report. In addition, they will create a new chapter on maternal morbidity and mortality. This chapter will involve developing a set of standard maternal morbidity analyses using hospital discharge diagnoses and procedures. The chapter will describe trends, and rates of pregnancy-associated and pregnancy-related deaths and hospitalizations by age, race-ethnicity, pre-pregnancy BMI, leading causes, and the presence of pregnancy risk factors.

Goals
1) Analyze data and update up to 5 chapters of the MCH Data Report
2) Analyze data and develop a new chapter on maternal morbidity and mortality for the MCH Data Report.

Objectives
1) Analyze and interpret data on the health status and health behaviors of the Washington state MCH population.

Data or analytic tasks and activities involved
This project includes the development of an analytic plan, the analysis and interpretation of data from multiple sources, including birth and death data, the Healthy Youth survey and hospitalization data, and a written summary of key data points.

Required data or analytic skills
Ability to analyze and interpret data.
Graduate classes in epidemiology and statistics.
Basic skills in analytic software.
Software skills should include working with word processing (Microsoft Word), spreadsheets (Excel) and working with statistical software such as Stata

Begin date
06/01/09

Housing assistance available?
There are many apartment complexes and housing options in Olympia and we can provide information to the intern.

Public transportation available?
The worksite is accessible via public transportation.

More information
MCH Data Report link: http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/mch/mch_assessment/mchdatareport/mch_data_report_home.htm