A method to measure the impact of primary care programs targeted to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes.

A retrospective population-based study was designed to test the impact on selected health outcomes of community-based primary care programs targeting racial and ethnic minorities. Zip codes were coded as either "high" or "low" access to targeted primary care programs to create the independent variable of interest. Outcome measures were chosen to represent unique dimensions of primary care. Generalized linear models were developed to compare rates for the outcome measures among blacks in high- and low-access areas. This study provides a useful approach that could be used to evaluate the impact of such programs in other communities.