The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with RWJF and the CDC Foundation, has launched PLACES, an extension of the 500 Cities project.
The PLACES project provides estimates, obtained using model-based small area estimation methods, for 27 health measures for four U.S. geographic levels: counties, places, census tracts, and ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs). It includes nationwide data at a granular level to cover smaller cities and rural areas, data that were previously unavailable. Measures include unhealthy behaviors (e.g., current smoking), health outcomes (e.g., coronary heart disease, diabetes), and prevention practices (e.g., health insurance coverage, cholesterol screening).
The data can be used to:
- Identify the health issues facing a local area or neighborhoods.
- Establish key health objectives.
- Develop and implement effective and targeted prevention activities.
Information on the methods used can be found here.