Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29373976›Full record

ArticlePopulation health metrics2018

Calculating census tract-based life expectancy in New York state: a generalizable approach.

Thomas O Talbot, Douglas H Done, Gwen D Babcock

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Population health metrics, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
0.9field-weighted citation impact, top 24% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. The (Im)precision of Life Expectancy Numbers.American journal of public health · 2022
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Quantifying and explaining variation in life expectancy at census tract, county, and state levels in the United States.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020
    Article
  5. Community-based social determinants of three measures of mortality in Rhode Island cities and towns.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Thomas O TalbotDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Albany School of Public Health, Rensselaer, NY, USA. thmstalbot@gmail.com.
Douglas H DoneDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Albany School of Public Health, Rensselaer, NY, USA.
Gwen D BabcockBureau of Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY, USA.
University at Albany, State University of New York · USNew York State Department of Health · US

Funding

PPHF-13- NYS NATL ENVIRONMENTAL PUB HLTH TRACKING PROGRAM-NETWORK IMPLEMENTATIONU38EH000942 · EH · HEALTH RESEARCH INC, NEW YORK STATE DOH · PI HWANG, SYNI-AN · 2011 to 2015
$4.8M
NCEH CDC HHS U38 EH000942NCEH CDC HHS U38EH000942
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLife expectancy at birth (LE) has been calculated for states and counties. LE estimates at these levels mask health disparities in local communities. There are no nationwide estimates at the sub-county level. We present a stepwise approach for calculating LE using census tracts in New York state to identify health disparities.

methodsOur study included 2751 census tracts in New York state, but excluded New York City. We used population data from the 2010 United States Census and 2008-2010 mortality data from the state health department. Tracts were assigned to 99.97% of the deaths. We removed tracts which had a majority of people living in group quarters. Deaths in these tracts are often recorded elsewhere. Of the remaining 2679 tracts, 6.6% of the tracts had standard errors ≥ 2 years. A geographic aggregation tool was used to aggregate tracts with fewer than 60 deaths, and then aggregate areas that had standard errors of ≥ 2 years.

resultsAggregation resulted in a 9.9% reduction in the number of areas. Tracts with < 2% of population living below the poverty level had a LE of 82.8 years, while tracts with a poverty level ≥ 25% had a LE of 75.5. We observed differences in LE in border areas, of up to 10.4 years, when excluding or including deaths of study area residents that occurred outside the study area. The range and standard deviation at the county level (77.5-82.8, SD = 1.2 years) were smaller than our final sub-county areas (64.7-92.0, SD = 3.3 years). The correlation between LE and poverty were similar and statistically significant (p < 0.0001) at the county (r = - 0.58) and sub-county level (r = - 0.58). The correlations between LE and percent African-American at the county level were (r = 0.11, p = 0.43) and at the sub-county level (r = - 0.25, p < 0.0001).

conclusionThe proposed approach for geocoding and aggregation of mortality and population data provides a solution for health departments to produce stable empirically-derived LE estimates using data coded to the tract. Reliable estimates within sub-county areas are needed to aid public health officials in focusing preventive health programs in areas where health disparities would be masked by county level estimates.

Indexed as

Geographic MappingHealth Status DisparitiesLife ExpectancyBlack or African AmericanCensusesFemaleHumansMaleMortalityNew YorkPovertygeocodinggeographic aggregationhealth disparitieslife expectancysmall area analysisspatial aggregation

Identifiers

PMID29373976
PMCPMC5787312
OpenAlexW2797166437

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.