Current Initiatives

Real Iowans Research Initiative

Publications

Iowans Speak Out on Their Health - The Rural-Urban Divide: July 2011

Iowans Speak Out on Their Health: November 2010

Full Report (6.2MB)

Research Initiative Overview

Iowa'a Employers and Employees in the Private and Non-Profit Sectors Face Growing Challenges Maintaining Health Care Benefits.
Health care benefit costs provided by employers to employees continue to increase steeply while organizations struggle to maintain health care coverage and access to wellness benefits. Since 1999, premiums for employee-only coverage have increased by 115% and family premiums have increased by 109%*. As a result, an increasing number of employed Iowans are uninsured and underinsured and lack the wellness benefits necessary to remain healthy and productive.

Expanding access to high-quality and affordable health care has become an urgent priority, requiring fresh and critical viewpoints from a representative sample of "real" Iowans - thus providing a collective voice for all, a voice all too often missing in health care policy forums.

The Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence (HWCE) at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health is one of three national CDC funded centers to conduct health protection and health promotion research and to serve as a state and national resource to develop and promote evidence-based employee well being programs. In the Real Iowans Research Initiative the HWCE joins with David P. Lind & Associates and the State Public Policy Group to assess health care needs and views of Iowa employees, as well as non-employed Iowans. The term "Real Iowans" is intended to convey inclusion of a broad cross-section of all employed Iowans, as well as others who may be uninsured or underinsured.

The Real Iowans Research Initiative will engage Iowans from all sectors and population groups through three strategies:

personal interviews of Iowa's stakeholders in all sectors
focus groups of underserved and under-represented groups who are often not registered voters, and
a population-based survey of Iowans with a primary goal of identifying health needs, priorities, and opportunities of the Iowa workforce and other Iowa voters.

Over the next 10 months, the Real Iowans Research Initiative will be engaging Iowans at all levels and between March and May, 2010 will field a telephone survey of a representative sample of Iowa voters. Research findings will be published by the Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence in late 2010.

November 30, 2010 Iowans Speak Out on Their Health (large pdf file - 6391 KB)