The African Family Health Organization provides health and other social services to African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees. Their office is currently located at 44th and Chestnut near the traditional center of the African immigrant community in Southwest Philly. But there is also a significant and growing population in the Northeast, and a lack of health care services in that area. The goal of the project was to understand what groups of people are living in the Northeast and, based on the services accessed by current clients, determine what types of services might be most needed in that area.
A series of maps showing data on country of birth from the 2013 ACS in conjunction with the distribution of clients by zipcode will help the organization identify areas with large African populations that they are underserving. Statistical analyses identified demographic factors that described the types of services clients accessed, the most noticeable of which was the disproportionately high number of Haitian clients accessing vision services. Since the Haitian population is concentrated in the Northeast and makes up more than half of AFAHO’s current clients from that area, if they expand their services there vision care is a high priority. In particular, Glaucoma is very prevalent and early-onset in Haitian populations, and providing screenings and care in their communities could help reduce the impact of the disease.
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