Population Health Data

Data Table on Population Health Indicators Assignment
This assignment is worth 20% (20 points) of your overall grade.
Students you will examine population health data at three levels and create a data table incorporating the population health indicators. The information will be entered into the Population Health Data Template. Students will respond to three questions about the meaning of the data.
USA national population
1. County or locality of special interest to you.
a) Choose a county of special interest to you. This may be your hometown, your neighborhood where you reside or provide health care, or city. Choose a locality where you do clinical work or an area where you are interested in doing clinical work. Enter the name of the county in the table.
You can locate the population health data on publicly available web resources listed below. Organize the data using the Population Health Data Template. The template is a single table with multiple rows for important population health statistics and three columns, one for each of for the populations listed above. See the table template, below.
The goals of constructing the table are to:
▪ Explore relevant online data sources for each population level.
▪ Allow comparisons of relevant health statistics across three populations.
Template Instructions:
• Table Template
o Enter the data into the Template (WORD document).
o Upload the completed document into assignment drop box in Blackboard.
• Year
o Note the year for the data displayed for each population
o Select the same year for each population across the three columns to provide contemporaneous comparisons.
• Missing Data
o If you cannot find the specified data for each community, enter the best you can find
or enter a note on “missing data.”
o Another approach would be to change the variable definition somewhat to get figures for which you can provide equivalent data across the three populations.
Notes on Populations
A = Overall US population.
B = The county or locality of special interest to you.
▪ Enter the name of the county in the table
▪ Demographic characteristics
▪ Health problems
▪ Special needs or vulnerable circumstances
Notes on Health Variables
1. Age of population. For some populations, the age distribution is important. You may want to add more age strata.
2. Percent of population aged under five years.
3. Percent of population who are female, male, transgendered, or other.
4. Race, Ethnicity, or multiple races:
▪ Percent of population that is White/Non-Hispanic, White/Hispanic, Latinx/Hispanic, Black, Other, multiple races
▪ You may also break out other groups
5. Percent of population living in poverty
▪ Total family income under the federal poverty level.
6. Percent of population with education beyond high school
▪ You may also break out other levels of educational attainment
7. Percent of population who are current cigarette smokers.
8. Current overall life expectancy at birth, in years.
9. List the top five causes of death, with rates per 100,000.
10. Percent of adults who are overweight and obese.
11. Select three variables of special interest to you: demographic characteristics, health status measures, health risk behaviors, medical care outcomes and list them in
▪ 11a
▪ 11b
▪ 11c
Additional Notes:
▪ Figures for adults are usually given for non-institutionalized, non-military adults over age 20 years.
▪ Some rates are given as number per 1,000 or 100,000 population.
Answer the Following Questions
1) What are the factors that contribute the differences in life expectancy?
2) What factors contribute the smoking rates?
3) Discuss the importance of knowing the percent of children 5 years and younger (hint: age distribution)
USA NATIONAL DATA SOURCES
CDC National Center for Health Statistics (Fast Stats): http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/ (Links to an external site.)
Quick Facts from the Census Bureau. Provides basic demographic, housing, economic and geographic data for US. Can compare and create tables across US, state, county and city level data. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/00 (Links to an external site.)
County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. Explores health rankings of counties across US and compares counties on health outcomes and multiple health factors: health behaviors, clinical care,
social & economic factors and physical environment. Also suggests effective interventions for population health problems.: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org (Links to an external site.)
County Health Calculator. Allows you to compare counties side by side: http://countyhealthcalculator.org/ (Links to an external site.)
Also, see how a county’s educational and income levels are associated with outcomes for diabetes
and overall health: http://countyhealthcalculator.org/location/153033/ (Links to an external site.)
American Fact Finder. Demographic and other population characteristics of US populations at national, state, county and metropolitan levels: https://data.census.gov/cedsci/ (links to an external site).
CDC – Stats of the States. Explore selected health stats of individual states. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/stats_of_the_states.htm (Links to an external site.)
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) tracks health conditions and risk behaviors in the United States yearly since 1984. http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/ (Links to an external site.)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration – SAMSHA. Fast Finder for stats on mental health and substance use problems: https://www.samhsa.gov/ (Links to an external site)
Healthy People 2030. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion created this nationwide agenda for health promotion and disease prevention.
Healthy People 2030 builds off of the 467 objectives from Healthy People 2020. Over 1200 topic areas tracked on this interactive website.
Also shows health disparities in leading health indicators by age, county, disability, income, family type, birth weight and geographic location. https://www.healthypeople.gov (Links to an external site.)
CDC Wonder. Data search engine to track progress on Healthy People 2020. http://wonder.cdc.gov/data2010/focraceg.htm (Links to an external site.)
The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. Documents glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used across the United States. The project uses Medicare data to provide information and analysis about national, regional and local markets, as well as hospitals and their affiliated physicians. http://www.dartmouthatlas.org (Links to an external site.)
Article
US County-Level Trends in Mortality Rates for Major Causes of Death, 1980-2014. Dwyer-Lindgren L, Bertozzi-Villa A, Stubbs R, et al. JAMA. 2016;316(22):2385-2401. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.13645. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2592499 (Links to an external site.)