Data Description

The app uses downloads data from two sources:

• CDC WONDER Detailed Mortality Data
• County Health Ranking Social Determinants Data

The county health ranking data set is the aggregation of multiple data set, which will be listed below.

CDC WONDER

Grouping Variables for Query

We group results by State, County, and 2013 Urbanization for the table layout. Then we consider all states for analysis. We consider all genders, races, and Hispanic origin, but only for ages from 25-64. We select years from 2000-2017 in six three-year-block (2000-2002, 2003-2005, ..., 2015-2017). We select all weekdays and places no matter if the body was autopsied. We choose four striking cause of death for our analysis, detailed below.

Cause of Death Filtering

The cause of death is selected based on the ICD-10 code. Currently, the selected causes of deaths are: Despair (F10-F19, X40-X49, X60-X84, Y10-Y19), Cancer(C00-C97), Cardiovascular Disease(I00-I99), Assault(X85-Y09), and a high-level overview of All-Cause of Death. The primary reason for choosing these causes of deaths is: (Insert Detailed Reasons Here).

Other Restrictions

1. Aside from causes of death, only the records with age ranging from 25-64 are selected. The primary reason is to correspond with the paper published by Stein et.al. "The Epidemic of Despair Among White Americans: Trends in the Leading Causes of Premature Death, 1999–2015", American Journal of Public Health, 107(10):1541–1547, 2017.

2. The mortality rate is grouped in three-year chunks. The main reason is to avoid missing value problems. The website suppresses death numbers under 10 (in a single year) for privacy, so calculating rates over three year periods ensures more rates are reported.

County Health Ranking

The county health ranking data set contains all the social determinants data needed in this app. Though the data set is downloaded from a single website, it is actually an aggregation of multiple data sources like CDC Wonder. Below are the relevant links to County Health Ranking official downloading page and primary sources.

Download Links

www.countyhealthrankings.org

Primary Sources and Links

• Census Population Estimates: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest.html
• American Community Survey: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
• CDC WONDER mortality data: https://wonder.cdc.gov
• National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov
• Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html
• Small Area Health Insurance Estimates: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sahie.html
• USDA Food Environment Atlas: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environment-atlas/
• Map the Meal Gap: https://map.feedingamerica.org
• National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/default.htm
• CDC Diabetes Interactive Atlas: https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/atlas/countydata/atlas.html
• Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System: https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html
• National Center for Health Statistics - Mortality Files: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/cmf.htm
• CMS, National Provider Identification File: https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Administrative-Simplification/NationalProvIdentStand/DataDissemination