BACKGROUND: In June 2013, the Division of Disease Prevention (DPP) at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) was awarded the State Public Health Action 1305 Grant (1305) to address the U.S. CDC’s four chronic disease prevention and health promotion domains in the prevention and control of diabetes, heart disease, overweight/obesity and promotion of school health. To measure progress towards the grant’s long-term objectives, performance measures were provided to states for surveillance and evaluation purposes. As Maine collected data for and began tracking performance measures early on in the grant, it became clear that an interactive approach to data display would be useful to program staff, Maine CDC leadership and stakeholders.
METHODS: All 1305 performance measures for which geographical data were available were identified by Maine’s 1305 epidemiologists. Using SAS, data were analyzed at the county or public health district level for all identified measures. Epidemiology staff were trained to use Instant Atlas™, an information visualization software that utilizes dynamic atlases and interactive dashboards for data display. Data, including prevalence estimates or rates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals, for all identified performance measures were entered into the formatted Instant Atlas spreadsheet to allow for correct presentation on the dashboard. Program staff were engaged throughout the dashboard’s design process to ensure effective and useful data presentation for users.
RESULTS: These efforts resulted in the publication of the “Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Heart Disease and Obesity” interactive data dashboard available on the Maine CDC’s Division of Disease Prevention’s website in the spring of 2016 (http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/population-health/data/prevention-diabetes/atlas.html). Data for 27 measures were presented within six distinct categories (Hospitalization, Death, High School Risk Factors, Middle School Risk Factors, and Adult Risk Factors) by both county and public health district geographies. The dashboard allows users to simultaneously view data for a given measure by either geography in a table, a map, a trendline, and an animated time series as well as export the dashboard as a graphic or the data as a data table.
CONCLUSIONS: Maine’s “Prevention and Control of Diabetes, Heart Disease and Obesity” interactive Instant Atlas™ dashboard has been well received by program staff, Maine CDC leadership, program partners and stakeholders, and U.S. CDC 1305 project officers and evaluators. As updated data are available and as some performance measures have changed since the dashboard’s creation, there are plans to continually update the data on the dashboard for prolonged availability and accessibility by data users.