Development of a Public Health Assessment Tool to Prevent Lyme Disease

The Healthy People 2010 plan of the United States Department of Health and Human Services sets a goal to reduce the Lyme disease incidence in endemic states from 17.4 cases per 100,000 people to 9.7 cases per 100,000 people by 2010, a 44 percent reduction. A thorough literature search of the Internet and major databases revealed no comprehensive self-administered Lyme disease risk assessment instrument in existence for which reliability and validity indices were available. The establishment of a single valid and reliable instrument for the assessment of Lyme disease risk may provide valuable data toward developing prevention strategies to reach the Healthy People 2010 goal of reducing Lyme disease incidence in endemic areas by 44 percent. This book will help prevention and provides an example of developing a valid and reliable instrument to determine an educational diagnosis using the PRECEDE-PROCEED model of public health planning. It will be of interest to health educators, public health students and professions and is intended to assist in achieving national public health goals related to Lyme disease prevention.