Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - For more than 30 years, the Hawaii Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (HI-BRFSS) has been a principal data source for monitoring diverse health issues, informing public health action, and responding to emerging health trends in Hawaii such as COVID-19. Although consistently rated as one of the healthiest states, Hawaii faces the same unrelenting health issues observed nationally. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has left 1 in 3 adult workers unemployed and is driving greater disparities in health. For this reason, the Hawaii DOH is seeking funding to improve public health surveillance of Hawaii’s adults and increase the dissemination of accurate, timely data to evaluate health promotion activities and set priorities for impact planning of programs and policies. Over the three-year grant period, the HI-BRFSS program shall increase the number of completed interviews, improve access to high-quality BRFSS data relevant to diverse communities, and work with diverse stakeholders to make HI-BRFSS data actionable. To achieve these outcomes, the project shall implement the following strategies: 1) Enhance the high standards of questionnaire development, data collection, review, refinement, analysis, and reporting, 2) Ensure sufficient sample sizes to allow for sub-state and demographic comparisons, and 3) Implement activities aimed at increasing dissemination, access, and use of quality BRFSS data. HI-BRFSS shall work with stakeholders across the state to assure program needs are met and the annual BRFSS questionnaire is well-informed. For example, questions related to COVID-19 are under consideration for the 2021 BRFSS to identify risk behaviors, to monitor the health status of Hawaii’s diverse population, and to inform public health actions. HI-BRFSS will also work with its contractors to improve data collection, data quality, and data dissemination to make HI-BRFSS data more accessible to interested parties. Project activities will be facilitated by the long-standing collaborations HI-BRFSS maintains with CDC, CDC-funded organizations, and organizations not funded by CDC. HI-BRFSS shall use stratified sampling to survey non-institutionalized adults ages 18 and older statewide. To assess the health status of Hawaii’s multi-ethnic population and to assure representation of potentially disparate groups, HI-BRFSS will maintain a minimum of 6,500 completed interviews annually, with the ratio of cellphone to landline respondents at 3:1. Surveillance data will be aggregated by county and sub-county levels, including by community or school complex area, to allow reporting of BRFSS data at more granular levels and by multiple dimensions to address health disparities. HI-BRFSS staff shall routinely conduct analyses, disseminate health indicator data statewide, and track usage of BRFSS data by stakeholders. Finally, HI-BRFSS will offer data to stakeholders in a variety of forms including online tools, trackers, custom reports, and record level data sets to meet the needs of different users.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).