Thursday, April 3, 2025
4/3/2025
Maine Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) - The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ME CDC) proposes to continue to conduct the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) telephone survey, as we have done since 1987. BRFSS is a state-based anonymous, random dialed landline, and cellphone surveillance system survey of adults. Over the next five-year grant period, the Maine CDC proposes to focus on data collection, data quality, building community partnerships, and sharing information with underrepresented communities. Our intermediate outcomes are 1) improved use of BRFSS data to guide public health actions and policies that promote healthy lifestyles among all population groups; 2) greater sharing and use of data among partners who promote health equity within under-represented communities; and 3) improved sharing and use of BRFSS data among traditional advocates. Maine will continue to sample over 10,000 respondents, for analysis of trends at the county level and for Maine’s public health districts, as well as for the state as whole. We will implement a strategic approach to survey development, prioritizing agency-wide goals, CDC programs’ plans for analysis of optional modules and state-added questions, contributions from a community engagement process conducted by the Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), and input from our stakeholders committee. We will improve our infrastructure of data quality checks and strengthen communication among our data collection vendor, Maine BRFSS, and our data processing vendor. This will lead to higher quality and more timely release of data for use by local areas. Maine BRFSS will develop strategic partnerships through collaborating on work that is already proceeding at Maine CDC and through new outreach and education efforts. We will begin by meeting with the Maine CDC Office of Population Health Equity and the Maine Shared Community Health Needs Assessment. In addition to drawing on the expertise of these two groups, Maine BRFSS will create an information sheet with links to data dashboards and an explanation of the availability of BRFSS data. We will disseminate the information sheet to community-based health organizations and will offer informational webinars. Through these outreach efforts, we will invite community-based organizations to submit requests to the Maine CDC data request portal and to join our stakeholders committee. By allowing Maine to surveil health trends of Maine residents, BRFSS data collection contributes to the long-term outcomes of enhanced health-focused polices and enhanced policies to boost health outcomes. With BRFSS data, Maine’s public health organizations and programs can identify and target at-risk populations, geographies, diseases, and health risks for program planning. Maine’s public health organizations use BRFSS to collect prevalence data for establishing program priorities, developing policies, assessing trends, shaping legislation, and addressing emerging public health issues.
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).