Indicator Summary Table

The following table contains essential information about how the ranking was determined for each indicator. Among the information included are the data source, most recent Colorado value and the year for the ranked values.

 Indicator Summary Table 

Indicator Selection
The 2009 Colorado Health Report Card describes how Colorado compares to other states on 38 indicators organized by five phases of the life cycle—Healthy Beginnings, Healthy Children, Healthy Adolescents, Healthy Adults and Healthy Aging. Final indicator selection was based on a review of the 20 indicators used in the 2006 Report Card, indicators used in other national and state report card efforts, consultation with the Colorado Health Report Card Advisory Committee and input from technical experts at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In addition to a focus on life cycle phases, selected indicators illuminate several important dimensions of population health in Colorado: access to health care (insurance coverage), health risks (such as smoking), chronic health conditions (such as diabetes) and health outcomes (such as mortality).

• Twenty-eight indicators measure Colorado’s progress toward achieving national public health objectives set forth in Healthy People 2010.
• Data for twenty-seven indicators are available for all states. Data for two of the Healthy Beginnings and eight Healthy Adolescents indicators are not collected by all states.