Use of peer groupings to assess county public health status.
BACKGROUND
The Community Health Status Indicators Project was undertaken to produce county-specific reports assessing the status of community health for local jurisdictions throughout the United States. To accomplish this assessment, the Community Health Status Indicators Project team selected peer groupings of counties to monitor and analyze the health of local communities relative to peer communities.


METHODS
To identify peer counties, the project team used 5 categorical county demographic variables, a specified order for applying criteria, and a predetermined target for peer grouping size to subdivide counties into homogeneous subgroups called peer groupings.


RESULTS
Eighty-eight peer groupings were developed with 14-58 counties in each. The average size of each peer grouping was 35 counties. All peer groupings included counties representing at least 6 states.


CONCLUSIONS
Peer groupings are very useful for community health assessment. They convey the range of health status indicator values for similar counties, serve as a basis for expected numbers of reportable diseases, and provide a method for comparing communities with peer and U.S. medians. To maintain their usefulness, peer groupings must be updated periodically.
Kanarek
Norma
N
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, 615 N Wolfe St, Room e7038, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. nkanarek@jhsph.edu
Bialek
Ron
R
Stanley
Jennifer
J
D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000379:methods*; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D010379:Peer Group; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D017062:Small-Area Analysis; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States