County-Level HIV Prevention Gap Index for the US Deep South

A dataset of 877 counties across nine US Deep South states, created by Ruaa Al Juboori and last updated in April 2026. It contains a calculated Prevention Gap Index (PGI) derived from standardized HIV prevalence and three prevention/care proxies: PrEP utilization, viral suppression, and HIV testing site density. The data is used to examine spatial patterns and associations with structural determinants like ethnicity and income.

Use Cases

• Identify counties with high HIV burden relative to prevention services based on the Prevention Gap Index.
• Analyze spatial clustering of HIV prevention gaps using the described queen contiguity weights.
• Model associations between structural determinants (e.g., ethnicity, income) and prevention gaps using the provided regression results.
• Validate or compare geographic targeting strategies against the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Phase I priority counties.
• Monitor changes in prevention service alignment with HIV prevalence over time at a county level.

Strengths

• Includes data for 877 counties, providing broad geographic coverage of the US Deep South.
• The Prevention Gap Index is validated against new diagnosis rates (Spearman ρ=0.51) and EHE priority counties (AUC=0.761).
• Dataset incorporates multiple standardized public health indicators (prevalence, PrEP, viral suppression, testing sites).
• Analysis includes both ordinary least squares and spatial regression models to account for geographic dependence.

Limitations

• Row count for the core dataset is known (877 counties), but column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The dataset is a 16.6 KB DOCX file, suggesting it may contain summary tables or a manuscript rather than raw, machine-readable data.
• Freshness should be verified as the last update date (2026-04-13) is in the future relative to the current date.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Ecological county-level analysis constructed from public datasets.

Time Range

Temporal coverage is not explicitly stated in the input.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-13 05:48:20

Geography

Counties in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas (US Deep South).