When Is a Health Outcome Data Evaluation Conducted?
Other Considerations
The public health assessment process calls for a health outcome data evaluation when certain conditions are met. These conditions relate to demonstrating completed or potential exposure, time of exposure, the exposed population, the level of exposure, a comparable reference population, and the availability of health outcome data.
Some facts that a health assessor would consider when deciding whether a health outcome data evaluation might be helpful include the following.
People in the community are contacting a chemical that has been linked with a particular disease. This is discussed in the pathways analysis section.
A chemical at the site is at high enough levels that people might become sick through contact with the chemical. This is discussed in the toxicologic evaluation section
Data related to the illness in the community are available. This is discussed in this section on health outcome data evaluation.
A Health Outcome Data Evaluation Decision Tree is available to health assessors to help them determine when evaluating health outcome data for a site or community would be useful.