High Plains Intermountain Center for Agriculture Health & Safety - Agriculture Center Evaluation for Kentucky

In 2004 NIOSH funded a contract proposal submitted by the High Plains lntermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (HICAHS) to undertake renewed program monitoring and outcomes assessment on behalf of the CDC/NIOSH-funded Centers for Agricultural Disease and Injury Research, Education, and Prevention. The mission of the NIOSH agricultural centers and the National Children's Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety is to reduce rates of agricultural occupational injury, illness, and death in the United States. Pilot program monitoring reports had been published by HICAHS and its collaborating centers in FY 2000 (U60/CCU 807121-09-1, June); FY 2001 (U07/CCU 807121-09-2, April); and FY 2005 (212-2004-098520). The FY 2006 report piloted the then-new ACE database over a five-month period, and a full twelve-month report utilizing the specially designed database was issued in January 2008 for FY 2007 (212-2004-09582). The two key aims of the Agricultural Centers Evaluation (ACE) team project are as follows: (1) Review and modi1~ the program monitoring and outcomes assessment model developed earlier utilizing a specially designed ACCESS database. (2) Develop and pilot a cross-site evaluation model to assess the impact of multiple center projects, with similar aims, on the safety and health of agricultural workers and their families. Four workshops have been hosted by HICAHS since January 2005 for team members to improve upon the evaluation process, including variable selection, definitions and database design. The 12-month report for FY 2007 includes program monitoring data for that year, as well as a preliminary trend analysis based upon ACE reports produced since 1999. Following a meeting of the evaluation team members in October 2007, the ACE database has been further refined to serve as a useful tool for generating required Progress Reports and Annual Reports to NIOSH.