Combining State and County Data Enhances Local Health Prevalence

County-level health data provides invaluable local insights, but state surveys contain data at broader geographic levels. How can county-level statistics be reliably extracted from state surveys? New research by Westat’s Andreea Erciulescu, PhD, appears in “Disaggregating Health Official Statistics by Integrating Data From Multiple Sources” published by Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin.

This research focused on using publicly available data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program to estimate the prevalence of having a personal doctor and having health insurance coverage at the county level. By integrating state estimates from BRFSS with county estimates from SAHIE, researchers were able to provide a tool that could improve the usability of valuable localized information to better understand healthcare access and needs.

This work extends the developments for which Erciulescu received the 2022 International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) Prize for Young Statisticians, 3^rd place.