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CHSI Community Health Status Indicators
  Our Mission: Provide Information for Improving Community Health
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What's New

Currently, CHSI 2009 reported about 205 health indicators (around 537 data measurements) for 3,141 current counties in 50 states and District of Columbia. The peer county group assignment, average life expectancy, adult preventative services use, and risk factors for premature death did not change from CHSI 2008 to CHSI 2009. From the user point of view, the following is new in CHSI 2009 update from CHSI 2008.

1. Demographic Information section was updated with Census 2008 population data.
2. All causes of death in Summary Measure of Health section was updated with NCHS 1996-2005 Mortality data, all other 3 health indicators did not change from CHSI 2008 to CHSI 2009.
3. National Leading Causes of Death, Measures of Birth and Death, Relative Health Importance sections were updated with NCHS 1996-2005 Vital Statistical data.
4. In Birth Measures table, "cdna Comparable data not available" footnote was added for "No Care in First Trimester" for the counties from the 13 states with 2003 revised birth certificate (FL, ID, KS, KY, NE, NH, NY (excl. NYC), PA, SC, TN, TX, VT, WA), and label "Births to Women over 40" was changed to "Births to Women age 40-54" with the same calculation formula.
5. Infectious Diseases in Environmental Health section and Infectious Disease Cases in Preventative Services Use section were updated with 1998-2007 data from National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC. Other health indicators in Environmental Health section were updated with 2008 toxic chemicals, and 2008 Air Quality data.
6. Health indicators in Vulnerable Population section, and Access to Care section were updated with various data sources.
7. In Access to Care section, label of "Uninsured individuals (age under 65)" was changed from "Uninsured individuals", and "Medicaid Beneficiaries" was updated with 2004 CMS data from 2008 ARF CD-ROM.

About the Data

The data used to construct the Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) were obtained from a variety of federal agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, Census Bureau, and Department of Labor. The data reported are publicly available data.

CHSI data is reported at the county-level, representing several areas of responsibility for public health such as access to and utilization of healthcare services, birth and death measures, vulnerable populations, risk-factors for premature deaths, communicable diseases, and environmental health. The estimates presented in the report rely on various data sources, methods, and calculations. The estimates are consistent across the CHSI reports, but the calculations may not correlate with other established methods for analyses of the same data.

Understanding there may be more than one method for calculating rates or percentages, as well as more than one definition of the same problem or source, the descriptions that are provided in the underlying documentation are the choices made for this project and the means for ensuring that health measures for communities are consistent and not based on differing definitions or methodologies. Users should be aware of the limitations of these estimates and understand that any estimated data do not represent official Department of Health and Human Services statistics.

Detailed information on data sources and methodology by topic is available in the data details section at the bottom of each web page. The same information is compiled and available in a printable form in Data Sources, Definitions, and Notes (PDF - 433KB).

The complete CHSI Dataset can be downloaded for research and analysis purposes. The download file includes a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet containing several worksheets. There is a separate worksheet for the data elements in each of the indicator domains in CHSI. There is also a worksheet that defines each data element and indicates where its description is found in Data Sources, Definitions, and Notes. Finally, there is a worksheet that defines the meaning of specific values (such as missing or suppressed data). In addition, each of the worksheets in the Excel file is presented as a .csv (comma-separated value) file to insure accessibility. An accompanying text file identifies each of the .csv files. The Excel spreadsheet, the text file identifying the .csv files, and the set of .csv files are contained in the CHSI Dataset file (ZIP - 5.10MB).

If you can't open the Excel spreadsheet, please download the latest version of Microsoft Excel Viewer.