Background: American Indians and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people suffer from a high chronic disease burden and multiple chronic disease disparities. Heart disease, diabetes, and stroke are among the top 10 leading causes of death among AI/AN people. AI/AN people have significantly higher heart disease and stroke mortality rates than U.S. Whites and the prevalence of diabetes among AI/AN people has increased 158% since 1990. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) is a statewide, tribally-designated health services organization that serves the nearly 170,000 AI/AN people and all 229 federally-recognized tribes in the Indian Health Service (IHS) Alaska Area.
Purpose: The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (ANEC) is applying for the CDC-RFA-DP19-1903, Good Health and Wellness in Indian Country (GHWIC) Component 3 funding opportunity to serve as the Tribal Coordinating Center (TCC) to achieve the purpose of reducing rates of mortality and morbidity from commercial tobacco use, diabetes, heart disease and stroke; reduce the prevalence of obesity; and prevention of other chronic disease risk factors and conditions (e.g., oral health, dementia, COPD) in American Indians and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations. ANEC will establish the TCC to 1) promote achievements, value, and impact of the National GHWIC Program through the use of a Communication Plan; 2) collaborate with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) evaluators in the development and implementation of a GHWIC National Evaluation Plan (NEP); and 3) facilitate the efficient peer-to-peer exchange of chronic disease prevention knowledge—such as best- or promising-practices, lessons learned, and success stories—including nurturing and stewarding a virtual GHWIC Community of Practice. In this role, ANEC proposes to provide evaluation technical assistance and technological support to all Component 1 and Component 2 Recipients (C1C2Rs).
Outcomes: By the end of the 5-year project period, ANEC will achieve the short-term outcomes associated with the Component 3 strategy of establishing a TCC for conducting national GHWIC program collaborative activities across all three C3 strategies. Short-term outcomes include: 1) Increased number of promising practices and success stories identified demonstrating a measurable impact of the program; 2) Increased number of C1C2Rs using their data and evaluation findings to monitor progress in achieving the NOFO outcomes and to inform program improvements; and 3) Increased participation among C1C2Rs in a collaborative Community of Practice. By the end of the project period the intermediate-term outcomes achieved will include: 1) Increased number of GHWIC promising practices and success stories disseminated among AI/AN communities; 2) Increased number of C1C2Rs submitting data to CDC to evaluate the national program in aggregate; and 3) Increased number of promising practices, lessons learned, and success stories identified, shared, and implemented over time.
Through this funding, ANEC will also make progress toward the long-term outcomes, beyond the scope of this project period, which are increased adoption and implementation of GHWIC promising practices within AI/AN communities and increased implementation of quality improvement activities.