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Correlation, Causation and County Maps
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On reflection @lemurcat12 I believe the story may be at a more granular level, say Postal Code. As you describe, how are the very poor faring inside the larger community?0
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What does access to exercise opportunities mean? (It doesn't seem to be strongly correlated with the results in IL, for the record.)
The worst Illinois counties are rural and largely white. However, the problem is arguably worse among the minority population in Chicago and other cities, although Cook County as a whole is one of the better counties (also decent public transportation, reasonably walkable in the city, really pro biking, although also less than great weather).
I can't find a map, but there are discussions I've found of the differences in the obesity rate neighborhood to neighborhood and it's consistent with my own observations.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »What does access to exercise opportunities mean? (It doesn't seem to be strongly correlated with the results in IL, for the record.)
It appears the county maps are using the BRFSS which asks respondents questions on how much activity they've had recently.
http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/pdf/PA RotatingCore_BRFSSGuide_508Comp_07252013FINAL.pdf0 -
I actually wonder if part of the issue is age -- that might fit the counties in my state, if the population is older (as I bet it is), and suggest that focusing on the differences between counties might not be that informative.0
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Let's take a look at California then, which overall does better than a good part of the US.
The cities still come out smelling like roses.
Now, getting back to Texas, @stealthq does mention that some communities are insular and jammed up right beside a contrasting wealthy district. The "rainbow" I was seeing on the race map. I know from my understanding of income inequality, that the wider the gap, the greater the destabilisation of the community. It's like, seeing how the "other side" lives on a daily basis, is hard on people.
@jmbmilholland if we are talking apples and oranges, then show me your orange.
I just didn't catch until I had the chance to look more closely, that what you originally posted for Texas (in blue) was ALL the health factors, but what lemurcat linked to was specifically obesity. I thought your original post was for obesity too, then was confused when I realized the county that contains San Antonio (BEX) seems to have good health factors, but is poor when it comes to adult obesity. I'm not sure how to capture that image, but here is a link:
http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/texas/2015/measure/factors/11/map
I was confused by all the different colors, plus I was working out on an arc trainer, so didn't pick up the fine details.
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I'll also throw out the tidbit for Colorado - it has usually been the lowest in obesity rates for the nation and was the last state to keep under 20% until 2011. The reason typically given is that with most of the population living in Denver, 2 out 3 people in Colorado live with daily elevation training. Perhaps we just need to apply for a grant to give elevation training masks out in all the other states?0
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Ah, yes @senecarr I can get behind the possibility of different treatment, coming from a visible minority, different treatment, and the stresses around that. In Canada we have a poor record on how we treated the native populations.
I've been thinking through your race vs. ethnic origin question, and I have come to the conclusion that my mind is not smart enough to handle it, because they seem to blur into each other and both change with changing cultural constructions and attitudes, whether scientifically defined as with race or community defined as with ethnic origin. Ugh! It's especially challenging when you look at the so-called "Hispanic" demographic; for example, to take two examples where the Hispanic demographic is by far the most dominant, the Texas county Hidalgo is on the heavy end of the spectrum (34% obese), while Miami-Dade is on the light end of the spectrum (21% obese). Miami Dade has a large Cuban population and probably many other Hispanic groups; I am guessing Hidalgo is primarily Mexican. Hispanics from all countries can range from Caucasian to African to Native American (which might be lumped in with Asians...?). How does a demographer even tease through that? Racially, a Hispanic could be the same as a "white" or a "black" but ethnic origin, which encompasses culture, there are huge differences.
At any rate, looking at Indiana, the two heaviest counties are very rural, somewhat hilly, in the southern part of the state--with a culture/ethnic origin that is comparable to Appalachian areas. And of course a very poor, slandered ("hillbilly"), mistreated demographic. Fun fact: John Mellancamp's "Small Town" is about Seymour, Indiana, which is in the heaviest Indiana county. Of course, then you also have one of the two thinnest Indiana counties located in the hilly south, Monroe, which encompasses Bloomington and Indiana University.0 -
jmbmilholland wrote: »Let's take a look at California then, which overall does better than a good part of the US.
The cities still come out smelling like roses.
Now, getting back to Texas, @stealthq does mention that some communities are insular and jammed up right beside a contrasting wealthy district. The "rainbow" I was seeing on the race map. I know from my understanding of income inequality, that the wider the gap, the greater the destabilisation of the community. It's like, seeing how the "other side" lives on a daily basis, is hard on people.
@jmbmilholland if we are talking apples and oranges, then show me your orange.
I just didn't catch until I had the chance to look more closely, that what you originally posted for Texas (in blue) was ALL the health factors, but what lemurcat linked to was specifically obesity. I thought your original post was for obesity too, then was confused when I realized the county that contains San Antonio (BEX) seems to have good health factors, but is poor when it comes to adult obesity. I'm not sure how to capture that image, but here is a link:
http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/texas/2015/measure/factors/11/map
I was confused by all the different colors, plus I was working out on an arc trainer, so didn't pick up the fine details.
Healthy but obese. Like Santa Claus?
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I'll also throw out the tidbit for Colorado - it has usually been the lowest in obesity rates for the nation and was the last state to keep under 20% until 2011. The reason typically given is that with most of the population living in Denver, 2 out 3 people in Colorado live with daily elevation training. Perhaps we just need to apply for a grant to give elevation training masks out in all the other states?
Funny; I spent two years in a small town at 4,000 feet. I was warned - and I did feel it - elevation fatigue for the first six months or so. It was also common for people to put on a few pounds after arriving. And I met a senior whose health condition prevented him from staying in a town that high. He had to get to lower ground.0 -
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Population density.
Chicago is a fine city, too. Your waterfront is for the people, as it should be. Reminds me of the grand plan of Central Park in New York. Engineering spaces for the people. Whatever happened to those Neo-Classical ideals? The stock market crash?0 -
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More on Adams county, Illinois.
http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/illinois/2015/rankings/adams/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot
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jmbmilholland wrote: »Ah, yes @senecarr I can get behind the possibility of different treatment, coming from a visible minority, different treatment, and the stresses around that. In Canada we have a poor record on how we treated the native populations.
I've been thinking through your race vs. ethnic origin question, and I have come to the conclusion that my mind is not smart enough to handle it, because they seem to blur into each other and both change with changing cultural constructions and attitudes, whether scientifically defined as with race or community defined as with ethnic origin. Ugh! It's especially challenging when you look at the so-called "Hispanic" demographic; for example, to take two examples where the Hispanic demographic is by far the most dominant, the Texas county Hidalgo is on the heavy end of the spectrum (34% obese), while Miami-Dade is on the light end of the spectrum (21% obese). Miami Dade has a large Cuban population and probably many other Hispanic groups; I am guessing Hidalgo is primarily Mexican. Hispanics from all countries can range from Caucasian to African to Native American (which might be lumped in with Asians...?). How does a demographer even tease through that? Racially, a Hispanic could be the same as a "white" or a "black" but ethnic origin, which encompasses culture, there are huge differences.
At any rate, looking at Indiana, the two heaviest counties are very rural, somewhat hilly, in the southern part of the state--with a culture/ethnic origin that is comparable to Appalachian areas. And of course a very poor, slandered ("hillbilly"), mistreated demographic. Fun fact: John Mellancamp's "Small Town" is about Seymour, Indiana, which is in the heaviest Indiana county. Of course, then you also have one of the two thinnest Indiana counties located in the hilly south, Monroe, which encompasses Bloomington and Indiana University.
Demographers probably ask respondents to self-identify. I am the grandmother to a mixed-race child, so my whole family is sensitive to this. My granddaughter explained it this way. A person is identified as black in the US even if they are 1/8 black. So my daughter feels slighted, as if she doesn't exist, even though my granddaughter carries half her heritage from the German/Scottish side.
The "race" map I've been copying separates "Asian" out as red. I notice a fairly large Asian contingent in the US cities, pretty concentrated right now. Give it a generation or two and that will change I bet.0 -
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I just found a very cool interactive map. Well geek cool. You might have figured out by now that I love my maps.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-environment-atlas/go-to-the-atlas.aspx0 -
jmbmilholland wrote: »Ah, yes @senecarr I can get behind the possibility of different treatment, coming from a visible minority, different treatment, and the stresses around that. In Canada we have a poor record on how we treated the native populations.
I've been thinking through your race vs. ethnic origin question, and I have come to the conclusion that my mind is not smart enough to handle it, because they seem to blur into each other and both change with changing cultural constructions and attitudes, whether scientifically defined as with race or community defined as with ethnic origin. Ugh! It's especially challenging when you look at the so-called "Hispanic" demographic; for example, to take two examples where the Hispanic demographic is by far the most dominant, the Texas county Hidalgo is on the heavy end of the spectrum (34% obese), while Miami-Dade is on the light end of the spectrum (21% obese). Miami Dade has a large Cuban population and probably many other Hispanic groups; I am guessing Hidalgo is primarily Mexican. Hispanics from all countries can range from Caucasian to African to Native American (which might be lumped in with Asians...?). How does a demographer even tease through that? Racially, a Hispanic could be the same as a "white" or a "black" but ethnic origin, which encompasses culture, there are huge differences.
At any rate, looking at Indiana, the two heaviest counties are very rural, somewhat hilly, in the southern part of the state--with a culture/ethnic origin that is comparable to Appalachian areas. And of course a very poor, slandered ("hillbilly"), mistreated demographic. Fun fact: John Mellancamp's "Small Town" is about Seymour, Indiana, which is in the heaviest Indiana county. Of course, then you also have one of the two thinnest Indiana counties located in the hilly south, Monroe, which encompasses Bloomington and Indiana University.
Illinois sounds similar to Indiana, but one thing I think is true is that the counties that have the worst stats skew older (which is not unrelated to some of the issues that rural counties in certain parts of the southern mid-west may have). They also have somewhat higher poverty rates than the state as a whole (and are much whiter, but Chicago distorts that stat anyway).
Your university counties would be younger, and even with childhood obesity being an issue younger people tend to be thinner.0 -
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I'm from California (the boot county in the middle - Fresno) and it is interesting to note that there's worse outcomes in this area, which is also one of the poorest in the state.
Coincidentally, it is also one of the last areas where property values are not out of control.0 -
Heavier as we get older? Yup, the baby boomers (zoomers) will dominate demographic trends for a few years yet.0
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