Health Equity Module Help

WISQARS™ Health Equity module helps describe the role of social determinants of health on fatal injuries. Social determinants of health are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes. Research and data show that fatal injuries disproportionately affect many populations. Examining the social and environmental factors that surround communities helps describe a more comprehensive picture of the root causes of injuries. These can be used to better inform injury prevention efforts.

The data sources for the Health Equity module are.

Getting Started

To customize the map displayed when you access the module, you will begin by clicking the "Change Filters" button near the top, right of the screen.

WISQARS™ Data Use Agreement

You are asked to agree to the terms of the WISQARS™ Data Use Agreement the first time you click on the "Change Filters" button. Click "I Agree" on the pop-up screen to accept the confidentiality terms for data usage and to continue to the "Data Filters" screen.

The Data Filters screen will allow you to make some key decisions about the data you want to view—such as years, geographic level, intent and mechanism, and social determinants of health—to create a map.

Data Filter screen for WISQARS' Health Module
Data Filter screen for WISQARS' Health Equity Module

Data Filters: Geography

From the dropdown menu under "geography", users can select United States to see a U.S map showing rates for fatal injuries and SDOH measure values at the county-level for all States. Users can also request to see the same data for only one State.

Data Filters: Years

Users can select the number of years they want to explore from the dropdown menu under "Years of Data." Users can either select 5-years or 10-years. The default selection is the most recent 5 years of data.

From the dropdown menu under "Year Range," users can select the time-period they would like the map to include. The most recent year range of available data is displayed as the default selection. Only one year range may be viewed at a time.

Note that some combinations of data filter selections (i.e., rare injuries) may not allow for results to be displayed even when viewing 10 years of data.

Data Filters: Intent

From the drop-down menu under "intent" users can select which injury intent to display in the map. Intent of injury is whether an injury was caused by an act carried out on purpose by oneself or by another person(s), with the goal of injuring or killing.

The intent categories for injury-related deaths are:

  • All Intents
  • Unintentional
  • Violence related (homicide, legal intervention, suicide)
  • Undetermined

WISQARS Glossary

Find definitions for the different injury intents at the WISQARS Glossary.

Data Filters: Mechanism

From the drop-down menu under "mechanism" users can select which injury mechanism to display in the map. The cause, or mechanism, of injury is the way in which the person sustained the injury; how the person was injured; or the process by which the injury occurred.

There are 28 mechanism categories for injury-related deaths. Of those, adverse effects overall, fire/burn, poisoning, transport-related overall, motor vehicle - traffic, pedal cyclist, and pedestrian mechanisms have options that allow the user to run more detailed queries.

Data Filters: Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)

The CDC/ATDSR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is calculated using U.S. Census Bureau data and is currently updated every two years. From the drop-down menu under "Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) Year," users can select the year of SVI data they want to view.

CDC recommends selecting an SVI year within the range of injury data years selected under "year range". For example, if you select 2016 to 2020 injury data, consider selecting either the 2016, 2018, or 2020 SVI. Modifications occurred to SVI theme names, individual SVI indicators, and adjunct data beginning in SVI 2020.

Social determinants of health (SDOH) are conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes.

From the drop-down menu under "SDOH Measure," users can request to see county-level social determinants of health data they are interested in.

Currently, the CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) is the only SDOH index included in the module. SVI is calculated using U.S. Census Bureau variables to rank county-level social vulnerability. Social vulnerability refers to the potential negative effects on communities caused by external stresses on human health. CDC/ATSDR estimates four social vulnerability themes in addition to calculating an overall vulnerability score.

  • Socioeconomic Status (below 150% poverty, unemployed, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, and no health insurance)
  • Household Characteristics (age 65 or older, age 17 or younger, civilian with disability, single-parent household, English-language proficiency)
  • Racial and ethnic minority status (minority)
  • Housing type and transportation (multi-unit structures, mobile homes, crowding, no vehicle, group quarters)

Health Equity Data Visualization

From the data filters screen, users should click "Submit" to generate the data they want displayed. The data are generated as a map by default.

The gray boxes above the map – called "breadcrumbs"— display the data selections made in the Data Filters screen.

Two numbers are displayed beneath the "breadcrumbs" that represent the number of injury deaths and total population in the selected data filters.

The county lines have been drawn on the map. A pop-up box will show the following data for that county when you hover your cursor over any county.

  • Social determinant of health (SDOH) measure value
  • Social determinant of health (SDOH) measure quartile
  • Age-adjusted mortality rate
  • Age-adjusted mortality quartile

Age-adjusted Mortality Rate Quartiles

County-level age-adjusted fatal injury rates are per 100,000 population and are ranked by quartile (low, mid-low, mid-high and high).

SDOH Measure Quartiles

Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) percentile ranking values are ranked from 0 to 1 in quartiles as

  • Low (0.0-0.2500)
  • Mid-low (0.2501-0.5000)
  • Mid-high (0.5001-0.7500)
  • High (0.7501-1.0)

Higher SVI ranking values correspond to higher vulnerability. The SVI ranking for a county will differ depending on whether national or state-specific data are selected. Counties are ranked relative to other counties in the state for state-specific data. Counties are ranked relative to all counties in the United States (including the District of Columbia) for national-level data.

Counties are colored according to their age-adjusted fatal injury death rate and social vulnerability value. There is a legend to describe the map data to the bottom-right of the map. Users can change the color theme (i.e., blue, purple, or blue-red) from the menu at the bottom of the chart.

From the menu at the bottom of the chart users can choose to display data as a map (the default view) or table.

Users can sort the data by county, SDOH, or age adjusted mortality when they choose to display data as a table or view data in ascending or descending order.

  • Click the selection box under "Sort" and select county, SDOH, or age adjusted mortality to select how you would like to sort the data.
  • Click the selection box under "Order" and select ascending or descending.

Click "Apply Options" to generate the data with your selections.

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