December 11th, 2018
Effective planning and decision-making for improving the health of a community requires good information about the current health status and factors that will influence that health status.
This document identifies the metrics – the population health outcomes and important risk and protective factors – that, taken together, can describe the health of a community and drive action. Selection of these metrics reflects the weight of professional and academic judgment over the past three decades.
Methods
A systematic literature review identified the authoritative source documents that contain the metrics presented here. The source references are two Institute of Medicine reports, three published reports, three sets of web-based resources developed and maintained by state health departments, and two sets of web-based resources developed and maintained by professional organizations. To be recommended in this report, a metric had to be identified by three or more of these 10 resources.
Results
We have identified 42 metrics, broadly categorized as those characterizing the status of health outcomes or health determinants. This report also contains links to and descriptions of existing sources of indicators for these metrics. The majority of the 42 metrics have indicators available at the level of metropolitan statistical area, county, or sub-county (census tract, census block groups) (Table 2). Links to new sources of indicators will be added to the table as they become available.
We used a population health framework to organize the metrics of health outcomes and determinants. Outcomes were categorized as mortality or morbidity. Health determinants were organized into the following categories: health care, personal behaviors, demographics and the social environment, and the physical environment (Table 1). The links for each health outcome and determinant to valid and reliable indicators available at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA), county, or sub-county level are identified in Table 2.