Public Health Indicators
Public health indicators are measurable health conditions or behaviors that impact the well-being of a community. They offer a broad view of health in our communities, aiming to inform and guide interventions. These indicators provide timely, accessible information for local boards of health, community agencies, and residents. By confirming health issues, guiding action plans, tracking progress, and educating the public, indicators play a key role in community health efforts. They help compare local data to state benchmarks, track trends over time, and identify demographic groups that may experience greater health disparities.
Statistical Significance:
The Spokane Regional Health District Data Center evaluates County Health Insights data to determine if there are significant changes over time or differences between populations. Those findings are reported for each indicator page. Statistical testing is done using a level of p<0.05, meaning the findings could happen less than 5% of the time due to random variation in events occurring or in people who were included in a sample. This is the standard acceptable level for determining statistical significance. A sample or population and the number of events occurring must be of sufficient size to detect a significant change. With small populations, as happens in rural areas, data is combined to increase the size of the population being evaluated. This is done by combining years of data or having larger groups, such as two age groups instead of four. Even so, it can be challenging to prove statistical significance. Sometimes a difference that is not statistically significant may still be important within a community. Tracking this data allows for discussion, analysis, and data-informed decisions among partners in the counties.
Data Files:
Data for indicators on the County Health Insights website were presented using Tableau. You may request the data file for the visualizations from Spokane Regional Health District, Data Center. (509) 323-2853 or datacenter@srhd.org. The data is in an excel file.