Stroke Risk Factors and Rurality

Purpose

The purpose of this analysis is to compare the incidence of strokes related to risk factors and geographic characteristics such as incidence of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, rate of the population that performs cholesterol screening, use of high cholesterol medicine, uninsured rates, race, and rurality for each county and state.

For 2007-2017, U.S. rural death rates were higher than urban rates for the seven major causes of death analyzed, including congestive heart failure, stroke, cancer, diabetes, unintentional injury, suicide, and COPD (Yaemsiri et al., 2019). In 2017, stroke death rates were 8% higher in rural areas than in urban areas (Yaemsiri et al., 2019). Rural areas have significantly higher cardiovascular risk factors rates than urban areas, whereby rural populations are considerably older than urban and suburban populations and have higher rates of diabetes, obesity, and hypertension (Parker et al., 2018).

This data is also available as an Excel spreadsheet.

Stroke Risk Factors and Rurality.xlsx (504.24 KB)

Tutorial Video
Data Sources
Defining The Columns

In this tutorial video, we look at Stroke Risk Factors and Rurality. The video guides you through how to use Tableau data analysis to compare the incidence of strokes related to risk factors and geographic characteristics.

Stroke Risk Factors and Rurality Tutorial Video

CDC PLACES Data (data released December 2021)

County Health Ranking (data released 2022)

A blank entry indicates unreported data. A value of zero is defined and does not represent unreported data.

State: The abbreviation of the state.

County: The name of the county. County names are listed as provided on the US Census Bureau's list of 2020 FIPS Codes for Counties and County Equivalent Entities.

Geography: Based on the Core Based Statistical Areas include Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas.

Rural: areas that have a population of fewer than 10,000
Metropolitan: areas that have at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.
Micropolitan: areas that have at least one urban cluster of at least 10,000 but less than 50,000 population, plus adjacent territory that has a high degree of social and economic integration with the core as measured by commuting ties.

Percent Uninsured: Percentage of people under age 65 without insurance. The reporting period for this measure is 2019 from the Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program.

Percent Stroke: Respondents aged ≥18 years who report ever having been told by a doctor, nurse, or another health professional that they have had a stroke. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey provides the measure. Data is only provided for counties with more than 50 respondents to the BRFSS survey and is from 2019.

Percent High Blood Pressure: Percentage of respondents aged ≥18 years who report ever having been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professionals that they have high blood pressure. Women who were told high blood pressure only during pregnancy and those with borderline hypertension were excluded. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey provides the measure. Data is only provided for counties with more than 50 respondents to the BRFSS survey and is from 2019.

Percent High Cholesterol: Percentage of respondents that received a cholesterol screening in the past five years aged ≥18 years who report having been told by a doctor, nurse, or other health professionals that they had high cholesterol. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey provides the measure. Data is only provided for counties with more than 50 respondents to the BRFSS survey and is from 2019.

Percent with Cholesterol Screening: Percentage of respondents aged ≥18 who report having their cholesterol checked within the previous five years. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey provides the measure. Data is only provided for counties with more than 50 respondents to the BRFSS survey and is from 2018.

Percent Taking High Blood Pressure Medicine: Percentage of respondents aged ≥18 years who report having been told by a doctor, nurse, or another health professional of having high blood pressure other than during pregnancy who report taking medicine for high blood pressure. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey provides the measure. Data is only provided for counties with more than 50 respondents to the BRFSS survey and is from 2018.

Percent Asian: The proportion of the county’s population that falls into the racial or ethnic category of Asian from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Percent Black: The proportion of the county’s population that falls into the racial or ethnic category of Black from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Percent Hispanic: The proportion of the county’s population that falls into the racial or ethnic category of Hispanic from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Percent Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: The proportion of the county’s population that falls into the racial or ethnic category of Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Percent Native American: The proportion of the county’s population falling into the racial or ethnic category of Native American from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Percent White: The proportion of the county’s population that falls into the racial or ethnic category of White from the US Census Bureau Population Estimates from 2020.

Population Type: An indication of whether a county is predominantly metropolitan, micropolitan, or rural.