DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of our proposed educational program on "Geocoding, census data & social disparities in health" is to educate population researchers and data analysts in concepts, methods, and approaches to geocoding public health data, generating census-derived area-based socioeconomic measures, and using these data to investigate and monitor social disparities in health. Developed in response to PAR-02-099, "Educational programs for data, methods and interdisciplinary approaches to population research, "the 4 modules of our proposed educational program are: (1) "Introduction to studying social inequalities in health using geocoding and area-based socioeconomic measures;" (2) "Geocoding health data and creating area-based socioeconomic measures: methods and application;" (3) "Analyzing health data stratified by area-based socioeconomic measures: methods and application;" and (4) "Introduction to multi-level analysis of geocoded public health data." Modules 2-4 will include both a lecture and hands-on training in the computer micro lab. Faculty will be drawn principally from investigators and staff of the Principal Investigator's Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project (1 R01 HD36865). The program is intended to be offered twice a year, for 2 years, and each program will be designed to accommodate 25 participants, with 15 slots allocated for academic researchers (5 established researchers, 5 postdoctoral fellows, 5 doctoral students) and 10 slots allocated for data analysts from state health departments or comparable health agencies. The net total of participants trained will be 60 researchers and 40 health department staff. To facilitate enrollment in the course, especially that of members of underrepresented minority groups and others adversely affected by social inequalities, we propose to allocate a substantial portion of the budget to cover costs of participants' travel and lodging. Evaluations will be conducted immediately after the program, plus 6 months and 1 year later, to assess the participant's appraisal of the course and whether it had an impact on their subsequent work. By enhancing both the knowledge base and actual databases relevant to analyzing social inequalities in health, the proposed educational program is likely to advance not only key Healthy People 2010 objectives pertaining to geocoding of US health data and to improving knowledge relevant to eliminating health disparities, but also population science research.