500 Cities: Chronic Disease Risk Factor Prevalence

27 health measures for 500 U.S. cities, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and CDC, provide GIS-ready city-level estimates of chronic disease prevalence and risk behaviors. Data originate from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and are released in a format designed for mapping and spatial analysis. Seven measures in the 2017 release are based on 2014 BRFSS data due to the survey's biennial question cycle.

Use Cases

• Mapping city-level health disparities using `Geolocation` and `PHLTH_AdjPrev`.
• Analyzing correlations between risk factors like `CSMOKING_CrudePrev` and health outcomes such as `COPD_AdjPrev`.
• Prioritizing public health interventions by comparing `ACCESS2_AdjPrev` (healthcare access) with chronic disease rates across `PlaceName`.
• Tracking preventive care metrics like `COLON_SCREEN_CrudePrev` and `MAMMOUSE_Crude95CI` for population health assessments.

Strengths

• Contains 27 distinct health measures, providing a multi-faceted view of city health.
• Data is GIS-ready, with `Geolocation` fields for direct spatial joins and mapping.
• Project is backed by authoritative institutions: the CDC and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Limitations

• Metadata conflicts exist: one source lists a 2017 release with 2014/2015 data, while another mentions 2014/2013 data, creating temporal ambiguity.
• Key metadata like row count, exact size, and specific license terms are missing or labeled 'unknown' across sources.
• Some prevalence measures are 'crude' while others are 'adjusted', which may complicate direct comparisons without methodological notes.

Provenance

Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Population Health, Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch.

Collection Method

Estimates derived from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and processed for the 500 Cities project.

Time Range

2013-2015 (with a 2017 data release)

Freshness

2025-06-28 22:54:08.947610

Geography

500 cities across the United States.