.. new data, new ways to examine health characteristics at the city and census tract/subcounty level. For example, among the 500 largest U.S. cities in 2014, the incidence of high blood pressure ranged from 22.5% (Longmont, CO) to 47.8% (Gary, IN). Use the interactive table to view, rank, compare this and other new wide-ranging health statistics for the 500 largest U.S. cities and associated census tracts. See the related Web section for more detail.
At the census tract/neighborhood level, 937 tracts have more than 10% of the population ages 18 years and over with coronary heart disease. What are characteristics of health-related factors in your city, neighborhood and census tracts of interest? Use tools reviewed in this section to access/analyze a wide range of health-related characteristics (see items list below) — not available at the city or census tract level before.
Patterns of High Blood Pressure: Honolulu, HI by Census Tract
This graphic illustrates visual analysis and analytical potential for tracts in cities covered.
– Click graphic for larger view with high blood pressure %population label
– View developed with CV XE GIS software and related GIS project/fileset.
Accsss/analyze these data for approximately 28,000 tracts (of a total approximate 74,000) on topics including chronic disease risk factors, health outcomes and clinical preventive service use for the largest 500 cities in the U.S. These small area data enable stakeholders in cities, local health departments, neighborhoods and study areas to better understand the characteristics and geographic distribution of health-related measures and how they might impact health-related programs and other demographic-economic issues.
Scope of 500 Cities
The following graphic shows the 500 cities (green areas) included in project. Data for these cities and intersecting tracts are available. Click graphic for larger view providing county visibility and city name labels. Expand browser to full window for best quality view.
– View developed with CV XE GIS software and related GIS project/fileset.
The 500 Cities data have been developed as a part of the CDC 500 Cities project, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the CDC Foundation. These data are being integrated into the Situation & Outlook (S&O) database and included in the S&O metro reports. Examine health-related characteristics of metro cities and drill-down areas in combination with other demographic-economic measures.
Analytical Potential
These data provide only the health characteristics attributes. They are a small, but important, subset of a larger set of key health metrics. These data are estimates subject to errors of estimation and provide a snapshot view of one point in time.
The value of these data can be leveraged by linking them with other demographic-economic data from the American Community Survey (ACS 2015) tract and city data. Integrate and analyze these data with related data and alternative geography. See related health data analytics section.
Patterns of Heart Disease; Charlotte, NC-SC Area by Tract
This graphic illustrates coronary heart disease patterns by census tract for cities included in the database. Gray areas are census tracts not included in the 500 cities database. Click graphic for larger view. 
– View developed with CV XE GIS software and related GIS project/fileset.
Using the Interactive Table
Use the interactive table to view, rank, compare, query these health measures by city. The following graphic illustrates how the table can be used to examine patterns of Texas cities. Table operations are used to selected Texas cities then rank the cities based on the “Access” column — “Current lack of health insurance among adults aged 18-64 Years”.
Try it yourself. Use the table to examine a set of cities in a state of interest.
Join me in a Data Analytics Lab session to discuss more details about accessing and using wide-ranging demographic-economic data and data analytics. Learn more about using these data for areas and applications of interest.
About the Author
— Warren Glimpse is former senior Census Bureau statistician responsible for innovative data access and use operations. He is also the former associate director of the U.S. Office of Federal Statistical Policy and Standards for data access and use. He has more than 20 years of experience in the private sector developing data resources and tools for integration and analysis of geographic, demographic, economic and business data. Contact Warren. Join Warren on LinkedIn.
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