New York State Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS)

The New York State Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS) were developed in 2012, and are annually updated to consolidate and provide information regarding health indicators in the County Health Assessment Indicators (CHAI) for all communities in New York. Data previously provided in these reports have now been incorporated into the CHIRS Dashboard and are displayed in enhanced, more interactive data views. The CHIRS Dashboard tracks about 350 indicators organized by 15 health topics, and is updated annually to include the most recent year of data available for these indicators. Additionally, each of 62 counties in NYS has their own dashboard which allows for comparison of each county's data in relationship to that county's region and NYS totals, and includes at-a-glance comparisons of the two most recent data points. Visualizations include tables, maps, charts, and graphs at the state and county levels. This dashboard is a key resource for assessing county trends and can assist in tracking intervention progress.

To obtain data for an individual health indicator for New York State and all counties and regions, click on a topic area.

County Health Assessment Indicators (CHAI)

To obtain data for a specific county, select a county from the map below, or from a list of counties in New York State

Data Sources, Methodology and Data Presentation

Methodology and limitations

New York State Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS) - Methodology and Limitations

A discussion of the limitations of the data reports, the maintenance of confidentiality and statistical testing methods.

Data sources and presentation

Numerous data sources were used to develop this information including:

Mortality and natality data: New York State birth and death files

Hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visit data: Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative Systems (SPARCS) files, based on hospital discharges and ED visits

Disease and condition specific data: Department of Health disease registries, including cancer, AIDS/HIV, communicable disease, rabies, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted disease

Program-based data: WIC program, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, and Heavy Metals Registry, Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCR), Expanded Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), Oral Health Survey of 3rd Grade Children, Medicaid, New York State Governor's Traffic Safety Committee

National data: U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Feeding America, Measure of America

Mortality and hospitalization based indicators are presented as both crude and age-adjusted rates. The standard population that was used for adjustment was the 2000 United States population. Age adjustment allows for the comparison of rates between geographic areas with different age distributions.

These community statistics are grouped into fifteen health-related topics. The dashboard also includes an “About This Site” page which links to "About" indicator pages that provides indicator definitions, data sources and NYSDOH program contact information.

Data for each health topic can be obtained in two different formats. The first option, The New York State Community Health Indicator Reports (CHIRS) dashboard presents 15 health topics that include about 350300 health indicators. The dashboard has maps, tables, bar charts, trend graphs, and at-a-glance comparisons of the two most recent data points. Each table contains data for all 62 New York State counties, 11 Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) regions, New York City, the State excluding New York City, and New York State.

Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program. The DSRIP program aims to promote community-level collaborations and focus on system reform (Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) reforms), specifically a goal to achieve a 25 percent reduction in avoidable hospital use over five years . DSRIP relevant performance data - DSRIP data reporting and presentation resulted in organizing counties into 11 regions (These regions replaced the historically used HSA regions in CHIRS). Region 1: Long Island Region 2: New York City Region 3: Mid-Hudson Region 4: Capital Region Region 5: Mohawk Valley Region 6: North Country Region 7: Tug Hill Seaway Region 8: Central New York Region 9: Southern Tier Region 10: Finger Lakes Region 11: Western New York



Information can be accessed by selecting one of the health-related topics. After selecting a topic, a list of available indicators will appear. On the Dashboard home page, the green row includes the column header labeled Data Views. There are four or five icons displayed under the Data Views column, depending on the indicator.

The first blue letter "i" icon displays a text box showing the definition of the indicator.

Clicking on the map icon will produce a map of the state with each county having a color indicating its status in a quartile distribution. Clicking on a county will bring users to the county specific trend graph of that indicator (if available).

Clicking on the square white table icon will produce a data table of the entire state with each county's data.

Clicking on the colored bar chart icon will produce a bar graph of the entire state with each county's data displayed as colored bars in a graph depicting a quartile representation.

Clicking on the trend graph icon will produce a trend graph of the state indicator.

The state dashboard also includes the at-a-glance comparisons of the two most recent data points, and charts showing the indicator for the state, NYC and the state excluding NYC. The dashboard also includes a "Data Table" option that shows a comprehensive data table of all indicators organized by the health-related topics. This table displays data for the most recent year and for the previous year by indicator.

The second option is the county health topic profiles, or the County Health Assessment Indicators (CHAI).

The CHAI presents fifteen different health-related profiles, one for each topic, of each county.

Each county health topic profile presents data for multiple indicators, presented in the same format described above for the data by health-related topic presentation.

The county profiles also include dials, which indicates where the county's estimate is ranked when compared to all the other counties in New York State. The county estimate is categorized into quartiles. The yellow area of the dial represents the highest performing group, while the dark blue area of the dial represents the lowest performing group. The pointer shows where the selected county's estimate is ranked. The color at the center of the dial represents the category in which the selected county belongs.



If you have any questions or comments regarding the New York State Community Health Indicator Reports, please email the Public Health Information Group or contact us by phone at (518) 474-2543. For information about county health initiatives, please contact the respective local health department.