New SocioNeeds Index identifies populations prone to poor health outcomes by zip code

PHILADELPHIA — The Healthy Communities Institute on Thursday introduced the SocioNeeds Index, which identifies those living in the highest risk zip codes that can benefit most from supportive health and social programs.

 

"[The SocioNeeds Index is] another innovative way we're enabling health improvement initiatives to prioritize [health provider] efforts through easy-to-use data visualization tools," stated Deryk Van Brunt, HCI president, speaking at the Population Health Symposium from VHA and the Jefferson School of Population Health."It is becoming increasingly clear that ‘micro community health intelligence’, offered through tools like this, is critical for identifying adverse underlying neighborhood factors and developing strategies to improve care and outcomes for at-risk populations. The Index identifies zip codes in the region you care about, which statistically will have the highest rates of premature death and preventable hospitalizations and are worthy of focus."

 

The HCI SocioNeeds Index combines a set of socioeconomic factors — ranging from poverty to education — for all zip codes in the United States. The determinants were standardized, averaged and weighted to arrive at one composite index value. The Index formula maximizes the correlation to poor health outcomes, based on premature deaths and preventable hospitalizations.

 

"Organizations can use the SocioNeeds Index to set a perimeter around their geographic service area at the zip code level, then rank order the zip codes on a scale of 1 to 5 to identify the most vulnerable populations," said Leslie Safier, director of research for HCI. "Access has never been this easy and comprehensive for analyzing, at a very localized level, social determinants of health to guide strategic planning processes." 

 

“The Index will be critical to our efforts to use socioeconomic data to map vulnerable communities,” noted Ian Grant, rural health program manager at the Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization. “As we build coalitions, design initiatives, and apply for grants we are leveraging the entire suite of HCI data resources to do focused population health improvement and community engagement.”