Telling a State’s Health Story
Integrating America’s Health Rankings Data
Telling a State’s Health Story Requires Comprehensive Data; Professionals Face Challenges Accessing It
Every state has a unique health story to tell. State health officers, advocates and other public health leaders rely on data to accurately and comprehensively understand and share a picture of their state’s health. These evidence-based narratives are crucial to benchmark a state’s health, monitor progress on health goals and underscore opportunities to advocate for health program interventions.
Despite the broad public health understanding that different aspects of health and well-being are interconnected, according to former North Dakota state health officer Mylynn Tufte, the data that health officers can access is often siloed. Accessing comprehensive health data is critical for public health officials who are laying the foundation for successful interventions. By putting discrete health data points in context with measures of social drivers of health in a state — as well as trends in other states — health officials can use data to tell a more compelling story, pinpoint areas where progress has been made and illuminate areas of focus for future efforts.
America’s Health Rankings Platform Provides a Comprehensive and Reliable Foundation of Data
Tufte often turned to America’s Health Rankings® during her time as a state health officer for a public health data one-stop-shop. To assess health and well-being nationwide and statewide, the platform analyzes over 280 unique measures from more than 80 publicly available data sources, including the latest data from federal agencies, across a wide range of demographics. Recognizing that health outcome measures, like mortality and disease burden, are rooted in the conditions in which our communities born, live, learn, work, play, worship and age, America’s Health Rankings also includes social and economic factors, housing, education and access to clinical care, among other measures — providing foundational context for understanding health trends.
“As a former State Health Officer, I know firsthand how America’s Health Rankings can help a state health officer tell a comprehensive data-driven story to legislators. State health officers often have an abundance of data that sits in silos."
"America’s Health Rankings makes data accessible and digestible to contextualize measures of health in a state and provide legislators with the tools to advocate for solutions that improve health outcomes.”
Identifying Gaps and Driving Solutions
State health officials use America’s Health Rankings data as a tool to benchmark the health of populations within their state and in relation to other states. State health officials can also use America’s Health Rankings data to pinpoint populations that are at increased risk for certain health challenges and provide accountability to their public health interventions.
For example, state health data can help decision-makers efficiently allocate resources that address relevant health needs. Data provided in America’s Health Rankings can be incorporated into State Health or Community Needs Assessments, which help to identify gaps in health, or to support State Health Improvement Plans, which aim to improve the health of a state through evidence-based actions. These influential reports require comprehensive state level data — and help health officials and advocates to identify both unmet needs and effective solutions.
State level data provided through America’s Health Rankings also allows state health officers to compare the health of their state to other similar states. State level data can be used for benchmarking to neighboring states or can help state health officers learn from states with similar demographic characteristics.
“State health officers are always driving towards solutions. To be action-oriented, they need access to comprehensive benchmarking data to understand how the health of their state compares to similar states, helping them learn from other state’s successes to develop programs and policies that make a positive impact."
"The data provided through America’s Health Rankings is foundational to implementing that change.”
Data Integration Tool Fosters Storytelling that Can be Shared with the Broader Public Health Community
The Application Programming Interface (API) is the tool that public health professionals, like state health officers, use to harness the full breadth of America’s Health Rankings data. Team members, like epidemiologists and informatics teams, can use the API to easily interface with and integrate AHR data to create state health dashboards or data visualizations. Dashboards or visualizations can highlight trend changes over time and clearly illustrate health disparities between subpopulations.
Public health is a highly collaborative field, relying on partnerships to achieve meaningful solutions that address complex health challenges. Visualizations are a digestible way to deliver comprehensive data analysis to partners across public health. This analysis can then be used by public health professionals to do what they do best: identify gaps and collaborate on solutions that advance health outcomes for all.
Ultimately, comprehensive data is at the core of public health work — whether producing a Community Health Needs Assessment, advocating to a legislator for funding, creating data visualizations or evaluating programs. The America’s Health Rankings API tool can help state health officers and advocates keep credible data at the center of the conversation and advance health outcomes in communities and states across the country.