Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114007

James L. Wilson, PhD¹, Chris Mansfield, PhD², and Denise Kirk, MS¹. (1) Center for Health Services Research and Development, East Carolina University, Building, Greenville, NC 27858, 252-744-2953, wilsonja@mail.ecu.edu, (2) MPH, East Carolina University, Lakeside Annex #3, Greenville, NC 27834

As states expand the sample size and content of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) the instrument becomes a rich source of data. Perceived health status is an important and consistently asked question in BRFSS, but how well does respondent perception agree with a fundamental outcome measure, mortality, at the county level? Methods: Mortality data from NCHS's Compressed Mortality File (1998) and national county BRFSS response data (2003) from the CDC were used to measure linear trends between each self-perceived health status response and the age-adjusted mortality rate for US counties. Data management and calculations were conducted using SAS, SUDAAN, and Microsoft's Excel. Minimum county sample size was 50 respondents. Linear trend analysis for selected US counties (n= 1051) for each response shows an expected and distinctive pattern. Health status perceived as “excellent” showed a downward trend in age-adjusted mortality with a shift to increased mortality as perceived health status approached a “poor” rating. R-squared values for the national level analysis ranged from 0.05 to 0.24. To verify the observed national trends, counties from Washington State, which possess larger sample sizes, were used. The R-squared values for this sub-set ranged from 0.21 to 0.38, and replicated the national level trend pattern. Perception corresponds with reality. Further research could include examining the interaction of perceived health status with other socio-economic and demographic independent variables.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

• Evaluate the potential of BRFSS data in ecological analyses.
• Describe the methods used to conduct ecological analyses using BRFSS and other data.

Keywords: Survey, Mortality

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation