Connecticut's Success
Tracking the relationship between bladder cancer and environmental contamination
What is the problem?
An industrial town in southeast Connecticut reported increased numbers of cancer cases among residents. This led to an extensive environmental study of a former manufacturing site in the town. The study looked at the relationships among lead, asbestos, and polychlorinated biphenyl contamination and a possible increase in cancer cases.
What did Tracking do?
The Connecticut Tracking Program assisted with a follow-up study to the original investigation. The follow-up study looked at bladder cancer trends in the town. The tracking program guided the study design and analyzed the data. The follow-up study found that the trend of increased male bladder cancer ended in 1989. It also showed elevated bladder cancer rates for males and females from 1991 to 1996. These increases were small, but still important.
Improved public health
The study results not only benefit the residents of the specific town but also provide all Connecticut residents with a better understanding of the relationship between the environment and health.
Improving evaluation of asthma programs
What is the problem?
Asthma is an ongoing concern for many Connecticut residents, especially those living in urban areas. Tracking the rates of stays in the hospital because of asthma is key to assessing the success of public health interventions.
What did Tracking do?
The Connecticut Tracking Program developed a part of the state tracking network just for asthma. This section includes data from the state asthma program and from hospitals across the state. Users can view real-time rates for asthma-related hospital stays by ethnicity, gender, race, and county.
Improved public health
Thanks to the Connecticut Tracking Program, complete, user-friendly asthma data for the state are available in one place for the first time. Other health department programs in Connecticut now have access to asthma data that can help them more readily evaluate their asthma prevention and control activities in less time.
Connecticut’s Grantee Profile