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The County Health Rankings: rationale and methods

Overview of attention for article published in Population Health Metrics, April 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#33 of 410)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (80th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
2 news outlets
policy
1 policy source
twitter
11 X users
facebook
3 Facebook pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
279 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
224 Mendeley
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Title
The County Health Rankings: rationale and methods
Published in
Population Health Metrics, April 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12963-015-0044-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Patrick L Remington, Bridget B Catlin, Keith P Gennuso

Abstract

Annually since 2010, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have produced the County Health Rankings-a "population health checkup" for the nation's over 3,000 counties. The purpose of this paper is to review the background and rationale for the Rankings, explain in detail the methods we use to create the health rankings in each state, and discuss the strengths and limitations associated with ranking the health of communities. We base the Rankings on a conceptual model of population health that includes both health outcomes (mortality and morbidity) and health factors (health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment). Data for over 30 measures available at the county level are assembled from a number of national sources. Z-scores are calculated for each measure, multiplied by their assigned weights, and summed to create composite measure scores. Composite scores are then ordered and counties are ranked from best to worst health within each state. Health outcomes and related health factors vary significantly within states, with over two-fold differences between the least healthy counties versus the healthiest counties for measures such as premature mortality, teen birth rates, and percent of children living in poverty. Ranking within each state depicts disparities that are not apparent when counties are ranked across the entire nation. The County Health Rankings can be used to clearly demonstrate differences in health by place, raise awareness of the many factors that influence health, and stimulate community health improvement efforts. The Rankings draws upon the human instinct to compete by facilitating comparisons between neighboring or peer counties within states. Since no population health model, or rankings based off such models, will ever perfectly describe the health of its population, we encourage users to look to local sources of data to understand more about the health of their community.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 11 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 224 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United Kingdom 1 <1%
Unknown 223 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 45 20%
Student > Master 34 15%
Student > Ph. D. Student 22 10%
Student > Doctoral Student 22 10%
Professor > Associate Professor 14 6%
Other 43 19%
Unknown 44 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 55 25%
Social Sciences 34 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 32 14%
Computer Science 4 2%
Environmental Science 4 2%
Other 34 15%
Unknown 61 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 29. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 09 March 2021.
All research outputs
#1,340,708
of 25,271,884 outputs
Outputs from Population Health Metrics
#33
of 410 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#16,522
of 271,630 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Population Health Metrics
#2
of 5 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,271,884 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 410 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 271,630 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 5 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 3 of them.