298006
Using ArcGIS to create a measure of access to physical activity for the County Health Rankings
Objective: The County Health Rankings aimed to create a county level nationally representative measure of physical activity access by incorporating park and recreational facility data.
Methods: Data was acquired from ESRI, Delorme MapMart, OneSource Global Business Browser and the U.S. Census. Using ArcGIS a half mile buffer was created around local, state, and national parks and one (urban) and three (rural) mile buffers were created around recreational facilities. The buffered files were intersected with U.S. Census Tigerline files to join census block population data. Census blocks where at least one of the buffered physical activity layers overlapped the census block were considered to have access to a location for physical activity. The population with access and the total population were aggregated to the county-level. The final measure was the percentage of individuals in a county with access to a location for physical activity.
Results: The dataset covered 3,114 of 3,144 counties. The average county population with access to at least one physical activity location was 52.2% (range 0 – 100%) and was associated most notably with premature death (r = -0.363) and obesity (r=-0.360).
Discussion: Increased access to opportunities for physical activity is associated with lower premature death and obesity rates at the county level. The measure is the first to incorporate both park and recreational facility data at the national level and is an example of how ArcGIS can be used to create an easy to communicate built environment measure.
Learning Areas:
Communication and informaticsPublic health or related research
Learning Objectives:
Describe how GIS is utilized in the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project to create useful measures of the built environment.
Identify multiple ways GIS methods can be used to visually represent health factor and outcome data geographically.
Discuss some of the barriers encountered when utilizing GIS for data analysis and representation.
Keyword(s): Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Built Environment
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a Doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health employed by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute where I work on the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps project. Specific tasks under my current positions include assistance with original data compilation and analysis (such as ArcGIS use), literature reviews, and manuscript formation. My dissertation research focuses on the built environment and its relationship to health.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.