Blog & News
Now Available on State Health Compare: Updated Measures on Public Health, Health Outcomes, and Access, Cost, and Utilization of Care
December 12, 2018:SHADAC has updated eight data measures with the latest available estimates on our State Health Compare site. The updated measures include:
This measure indicates an individual state’s share of public health funding for the previous fiscal year. Data is available from 2005-2017, excepting in 2006 when data is not available.
This measure highlights the percent of people who made changes to their medical drugs due to cost in the past year. Breakdowns by age and coverage type are available for each state from 2011-2016.
This measure shows the percent of people who did not have trouble finding a doctor in the past year. The measure can be broken down by age and coverage type, and is now available from 2011 through 2016.
This measure captures the percent of persons who reported that their provider did accept their insurance type in the past year. The measure is available for 2011-2016 and can be broken down by age and coverage type as well.
Available for years 2011-2016, this measure counts the percent of people who had a usual source of medical care other than the emergency department (i.e., doctor’s office, clinic, health center, etc.) in the past year. Breakdowns by age and coverage type are also available.
This measure indicates the percent of adults who reported having a general doctor or provider visit in the past year. This measure can be broken down by age coverage type, and is available for all states from 2011 through 2016.
This measure, indicates the rates of individuals who reported a visit to the emergency department during the past twelve months for any reason and can be broken down by age and coverage type. Estimates are available from 2011-2016.
This measure denotes the rate of individuals who reported spending the night in a hospital at least once over the past year and can be broken down by age and coverage type. The measure is available from 2011-2016 for all states.
Explore these updated estimates on State Health Compare.
Data Sources
The State Health Compare estimates for public health funding come from Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and all other measures regarding adults who made changes to medical drugs, had no trouble finding a doctor, are told that their provider accepts their insurance, had a usual source of medical care, had a general doctor or provider visit, had an emergency department visit, or spent the night in a hospital over the past year come from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS).
Blog & News
Now Available on State Health Compare: Updated data on measures of social determinants of health, health insurance coverage, and children’s health through 2017
December 4, 2018:SHADAC has updated seven measures on our State Health Compare site. Updated content includes:
This measure shows rates of uninsurance or coverage type and is now available for all states from 2008 through 2017, with breakdowns by age, citizenship, disability status, education, family income, limited English proficiency, marital status, poverty level, race/ethnicity, sex, and work status.
This measure indicates the percent of children who live in households with incomes below the Federal Poverty Guidelines (FPG) with breakdowns for race/ethnicity. This measure is now available for all states from 2008 through 2017.
This measure shows the percent of people who are in families where out-of-pocket spending on health care, including premiums, accounted for more than 10 percent of annual income. The measure can be broken down by income and race/ethnicity and is now available from 2013 through 2017.
This measure captures state and federal spending on Medicaid as a share of each state’s budget and is now available for all states from 2000 through 2017.
This measure indicates the percent of adults who report being in poor or fair health, and is now available for all states from 2005 through 2017.
This measure indicates the percent of children ages 19-35 months who received all recommended vaccines and is now available for all states from 2000 through 2017.
This measure shows the percent of rental households that spend more than 30% of their households' monthly income on rent. Data for 2012-2017 is now available for all states, and can be broken down by income categories, Medicaid enrollment, and white/non-white status.
Explores these updated estimates on State Health Compare.
Data Sources
The State Health Compare estimates for coverage type, children considered to be poor, and unaffordable rents come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS); the people with high medical cost care burden measure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey (CPS); the Medicaid expenses as percent of the state budget rates comes from National Association of State Budget Officers Reports (NASBO); and the child vaccinations measure comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Immunization Survey.
Blog & News
Obesity Rate Increased Nationally for Second Year in a Row: New Data on State Health Compare
October 18, 2018:The prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States increased to 30.1 percent in 2017, up from 29.6 percent in 2016, according to SHADAC’s analysis of new Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
* Change from previous year statistically significant at the 95% confidence level
Obesity increased in six states; no states saw decreases
Six states (IA, MA, OH, OK, RI, and SC) experienced significant increases in the prevalence of obesity. Iowa had the largest significant increase at 4.4 percentage points, with the state’s obesity rate rising from 32.0 percent in 2016 to 36.4 percent in 2017. South Carolina experienced the smallest significant increase at 1.8 percentage points, with an increase from 32.3 percent in 2016 to 34.1 percent in 2017. No state experienced a significant decrease in the prevalence of obesity.
* Change from previous year statistically significant at the 95% confidence level
Substantial variation in prevalence of obesity across states
There is significant variation in the prevalence of adult obesity across the states, ranging from a high of 38.1 percent in West Virginia to a low of 22.6 percent in Colorado. Sixteen states, and the District of Columbia, had rates of obesity significantly below the national average, 21 states had rates significantly above the national average, and 13 states had rates that were not significantly different from the national average. The table below shows the states with the five highest and five lowest rates of adult obesity in 2017.
Explore further on SHADAC’s State Health Compare
State Health Compare allows users to dig deeper into adult obesity, providing state-level estimates from 2005 to 2017 with breakdowns by race/ethnicity and education. Users are also able to go back as far as 2001 to find data on obesity among high-school age students using the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).
State Health Compare also features state-level data on more than 40 additional measures from 16 data sources. State Health Compare allows users to compare states, examine trends over time, and download data visualizations such as 50-state maps, bar charts, and tables.
Notes
Adult obesity is defined as the prevalence of obesity among adults for the civilian non-institutionalized population 18 years and over. Obesity is defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and above. All data presented in this post come from SHADAC’s analysis of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) public use files and can be found at statehealthcompare.shadac.org. All differences described in this analysis are statistically significant at a two-sided 95% confidence interval.
Publication
Comparing Federal Government Surveys That Count the Uninsured: 2018
This brief provides an annual update to comparisons of uninsurance estimates from four federal surveys1:
- The American Community Survey (ACS)
- The Current Population Survey (CPS)
- The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - Household Component (MEPS-HC)
- The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
In this brief, we present current and historical national estimates of uininsurance along with the most recent available state-level estimates from these surveys. We also discuss the main reasons for variation in the estimates across the different surveys.
1 Another federal survey that provides estimates of the uninsured is the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which provides uninsurance estimates for the adult population 18 years and over nationally and among states. Details about the BRFSS are included in Appendix A of the brief, and estimates from the BRFSS are provided in Appendix B.