The purpose of Community Health Status Indicators (CHSI) is to provide an overview of key health indicators for local communities and encourage dialogue about actions that can be taken to improve the health of the community. The report CHSI was developed not only for public health professionals, but also for community members who are interested in the health of their community. The report CHSI contains more than 200 measures for each of 3141 counties of the United States.Although CHSI presents indicators like deaths from heart disease and cancer, it is important to understand that behavioral factors such as tobacco use, diet, physical activity, alcohol and drug use, sexual behavior and others greatly contribute to these deaths (see chart).
In addition to web pages, community profiles can be displayed on maps or download in booklet form. CHSI can display allows you to visually compare similar countries (referred to as peer countries), as well as neighboring countries with their own district. This feature will be available when displaying CHSI 2009 update is ready. Download the CHSI report allows wide dissemination of information an audience that may not have access to the Internet.
The report provides a tool for CHSI community of supporters to see, react and act to create a healthy society. The report can serve as a starting point for a community needs assessment, quantification of vulnerable groups, as well as measurements of preventable disease, disability and death. The report is accompanied by the CHSI companion document entitled Data sources, definitions and notes (PDF - 433KB).This document gives a detailed description of the data evaluation, definitions, cautions, methodologies and sources.
To gain access to the community profile, select the state and county name in the left navigation pane, and then display the data. Demographic characteristics of the selected county will appear, as well as its partner countries (if applicable, the countries of similar population size and border states). To go to another page, select the section health indicator from the list on the left navigation bar. To print a brochure CHSI, select the option to print a report in the upper right corner of the page, do not use the browser print option. To gain access to CHSI mapping tool, select a display option in the upper right corner of the page.