DCSIMG

About Indicator Profile Reports: Contents and Usage


What Are Health Indicators?

Health indicators are summary measures that are designed to describe particular aspects of a population's health or health system performance.

Why Have Health Indicators?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that comprehensive key indicator systems had the following positive effects:
  • Enhanced collaboration to address public issues.
  • Provided tools to encourage progress.
  • Informed decision making and improved research.
  • Increased public knowledge about key issues.

What Are Indicator Profiles?

NJSHAD Indicator Profiles are brief online reports that contains data and contextual information for a specific public health issue, such as its public health context, what the current status is, and what is being done to improve it. Each Indicator Profile has a graph (or several graphs) to give a picture of the data. Text is also provided to answer the most commonly asked questions about the specific topic addressed.

After looking at the Indicator Profile for a specific measure, if more detailed data are needed, the Custom Query System is available, or the program office may be contacted directly using the information available in the footer at the bottom of the Indicator Profile page.

Accessing Indicator Profile Reports

There are two ways to find Indicator Profiles in NJSHAD.
A-Z icon Alphabetical Index - Indicators are listed in alphabetical order by their titles.
Category icon Categorized Index - Indicators are placed in any of several categorization schemes, such as by health topic area, by data source, or by Healthy People focus area.
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Indicator Profile Graphs

Each Indicator Profile has a default graph on the indicator main page. Below the graph is a View Data For This Graph link to the table of data points used in the graph. Data Source(s) and Other Graphical Views (if any) are listed below the link.

Indicator Profile Navigation Buttons

Below are descriptions of each of the pages available from the left navigation buttons.

Important Facts

The Important Facts page shows, at a minimum, the following sections:
  • Definition
  • Numerator
  • Denominator
  • Why Is This Important?

Other available sections include:
  • Data Interpretation Issues
  • Healthy People 2010 Objectives
  • Healthy New Jersey 2010 Objectives
  • How Are We Doing?
  • How Does New Jersey Compare With the U.S.?
  • What Is Being Done?
  • Other Program Information

Graphical Views

The Graphical Views button has a pop-out list of all the views available for this indicator. The graph views are also listed on the main page under "Other Graphical Views."

Related Indicators

The Related Indicators button has a pop-out list of up to four Related Indicators pages:
  • Relevant Population Characteristics
  • Health Care System Factors
  • Risk Factors
  • Health Status Outcomes
These pages allow users to see how the current indicator might be related to other indicators.

Available Services

If there are services available to the public in regard to this indicator they are listed on the Available Services page.

Other Resources & Links

The Other Resources & Links page lists other places where more information may be found for this indicator.

Complete Profile

The Complete Profile lists all the information available for this indicator on one page. It includes everything from the above pages as well as all graphical views and their data tables.
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Using Indicator Profiles

Chart Progress

  • Track and evaluate progress toward goals
  • Compare trends across time to demonstrate improvement or decline in health status
  • Get information to use for program development
  • Enhance our ability to do public health assessment
  • Demonstrate cost-effectiveness

Decision-Making and Focus

  • Provide information that will be useful for decision-making
  • Guide policy decisions, priorities, and strategic plans
  • Compare measures across population subgroups to identify target groups for interventions
  • Allocate resources effectively

Understand Data and Provide Education

  • Educate the public on what public health is
  • Provide public health context to better understand the meaning of public health data
  • Ensure adequate understanding of public health data commonly used in decision-making
  • Provide focus to data analysis and support functions
  • Streamline data collection and reporting capacity
  • Focus measurement and reporting on measures that are high-priority
  • Standardize and promote familiarity with definitions of priority measures
  • Maintain data and information in a central location for easy access for use in producing reports, grant applications, and presentations
  • Provide an integrated view of public health services to our customers

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Printing Indicator Profile Reports

NJSHAD indicator report pages are automatically formatted for printing. The information on the page is displayed without the top navigation or left navigation buttons, and with margins set for 8 1/2" x 11" paper. NJSHAD graph colors were selected to maximize the ability to distinguish shades of gray when printed in black and white.

How to Cite Indicator Profile Reports

Use and reproduction of the information published on this website is encouraged and may be done without permission. Please refer to the NJSHAD Citation page for suggested citation styles.

Center for Health Statistics, New Jersey Department of Health, PO Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360, Phone: 609-984-6703, Fax: 609-984-7633, e-mail: chs@doh.state.nj.us, Web: www.nj.gov/health/chs
The information provided above is from the New Jersey Department of Health's NJSHAD Web site (http://nj.gov/health/shad). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: "Retrieved Thu, 23 May 2013 2:44:21 from New Jersey Department of Health, Center for Health Statistics, State Health Assessment Data Web site: http://nj.gov/health/shad".

Content updated: Fri, 8 Mar 2013 04:01:42 EST