An Innovative Approach to Chronic Disease Surveillance: the Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions (MDCC) Study

Disparities in health outcomes, health determinants, and access to quality healthcare are an ongoing policy priority in the United States. In 2011, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington and Public Health – Seattle & King County launched the Monitoring Disparities in Chronic Conditions (MDCC) Study to identify strategies for capturing and integrating data on chronic disease risk factors, prevalence, and interventions in a cost-effective manner to facilitate tracking disparities at the local level.

This pilot study, funded by NHLBI, addresses racial/ethnic disparities by targeting three groups: Hispanics, African-Americans, and Caucasians. The study integrates multiple sources of data to improve the quality and quantity of the information generated, including multi-mode surveys, administrative database linkages, study-specific physical examinations, and medical record reviews. Numerous sampling strategies were employed to maximize response rates of African-Americans and Hispanics, which have historically been low in King County.

To date, 3,013 participants have completed the survey, 238 have undergone the physical examination, and 562 have permitted access to their medical records. Data collection is still underway, but preliminary results suggest that the prevalence of chronic conditions such as diabetes varies prominently across racial/ethnic groups and gender. So far, for instance, Hispanic men have exhibited the highest diabetes prevalence among the races sampled, while Hispanic women have exhibited the lowest. We will present further analyses on more complete results by highlighting correlations between risk factors and chronic conditions and by comparing Hispanic and African-American response rate under various minority sampling strategies.