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The Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) Project produces health profiles for each of the 3,141 counties in the United States. CHSI was initially launched in 2000 and updated to an online format in 2008 and 2009. The Health Resources Services Administration hosted the website with continued support from an expanded partnership that included the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Library of Medicine, the Public Health Foundation, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, National Association of County and City Health Officials, National Association of Local Boards of Health, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. CDC has recently acquired primary responsibility for CHSI and plans to re-launch the website in 2014 with an updated framework, more recent data, and an enhanced user interface.
METHODS:
The new CHSI website will utilize a population health framework of health outcomes and health determinants including behavioral and physiologic factors, health care, and the social and physical environments. CDC plans to maintain the integrity of CHSI while incorporating updates to both the content and the display of data.
The content improvement process will include a review of current CHSI indicators as well as newly proposed indicators that align well with a population health model and conform to the highest data quality standards. Enhancements to the user interface will reflect the updated framework, new peer county grouping methodology, and improvements in data display.
CDC has reconvened past CHSI partners and reached out to new collaborators to guide these efforts. A review of frequently used indicators, published literature, and solicited feedback from subject matter experts continues to shape this evolving process.
RESULTS:
The newly revised CHSI will go live in January 2014 with updated data, a more cogent set of indicators structured around a population health framework, and a user-friendly web interface that elucidates the relationship between individual indicators and overall health. A refined set of peer counties will provide a more guided process for comparison and benchmarking. The ability to map health indicators will be maintained as well as the ability to access and download data for all counties.
CONCLUSIONS:
With sufficient input from stakeholders and collaboration among partners, the new CHSI website will continue to give local public health agencies and community groups another tool for improving their community’s health that is complementary to other population health and place-based initiatives.