Years of Potential Life Lost Rate (2011 to 2013)

Check out this map that shows the years of potential life lost rate from years 2011 to 2013. The years of potential life lost rate, also known as premature mortality rate, measures the frequency in which people are dying. From the map we can see a pronounced cluster of states darkly shaded (Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia) indicating a large proportion of counties within these states had a high rate of premature deaths. In other words people who lived within these counties were dying at an early age. In contrast we can see counties within states such as, Maine, Road Island, Vermont are lightly shaded yellow/orange, indicating people who lived within these counties were dying at an older age.

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By Julia Watson

Cancer Vaccine

Imagine world were a vaccine tailored to a specific patient was administered to kill cancerous cells. Well this world might be soon to come. Two studies were successful in produce a vaccine that prevented early relapse among twelve people with melanoma skin cancer. Earlier studies targeted a single type of protein found within the cancer cells that was shared among patients. However, with the new vaccine the mutated cancerous cells specific to a person are target allowing healthy cells to be spared. Check out the article here!

By Julia Watson

The Availability of Food

These maps from 2010 show the availability of grocery store locations and also the percentage of people who had a car to get there. The topic of food availability is already an interesting conversation.. is there enough food? Is there enough food, but it just isn’t distributed evenly? Why is healthy food more expense then unhealthy? Why has food become more of a business then of a way to survive? Take a look at these maps, because they bring another problem into the mix! Transportation and accessibility.

The information for the maps was collected from the USDA Food Environment Atlas and the maps were created by Meharry Medical College.

Vacant Housing Units 2010- 2014

This map was put together by Meharry Medical College with data from 2010- 2014 from the  America Community Survey. The data represents the percentage empty housing units across the US with the lightest color representing 1-12.4% and the darkest red color showing 44.9-81.3%. View this map and other data maps on communitymappingforhealthequity.org

Mapping School Meals- frac.org

I came across an interesting map that showed schools across the US that offered the National school Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program from 2014 to 2015. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially for young learners, but for some students a good first meal of the day isn’t always attainable. This program makes sure that students can start their day off right with a good meal! Across the board from 2014-2015 the US did a pretty good job with participating in both programs, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Check to see how your area measured! Thanks frac.org for the interesting information & map! Take a look at the rest of the map by clicking here.

nj.mapplerx.com/map/urisahealth

Take a look at this interesting map we made on Mappler in collaboration with Planning Communities! The map is full of GIS layers that you can toggle to show various information such as crime, food, recreation, transit, and URISA health data in DC. The picture below shows URISA data marking sidewalks, intersections, homeless locations, and garbage. Visit the map to view all the data ! nj.mapplerx.com/map/urisahealth

NYT Income and Life Expectancy Map

It seems logical that the more money you have, the longer you would be expected to live. This would be because you can afford better healthcare, maintain a healthier lifestyle, have access to better nutrition, and probably have less stress when it comes to day-to-day life because you are financially stable. The New York Times recently released an article that affirmed this thought, but also gave an eye-opening spin on the life expectancy of the poor based on where they live, showing that cities like LA and New York the life expectancy of those under the poverty line is higher then other cities in the US.

Health plays a significant role in the life span of a human, which seems obvious but when you look at the numbers, it can be shocking. The Journal of the American Medical Association states that the richest men live 15 years longer then the poorest 1 percent. So why do the poor living in cities like Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Dayton, and Tulsa to name a few, have lower life expectancies? David M. Cutler who is a economist at Harvard explains that a lot of cities with the lowest life expectancy for the poor fall into the “drug overdose belt”. Other explanations are just the availability to clinics and health education. Increasing health resources would slowly help to increase life expectancy in cities with the lowest life spans.

Take a look at the map from the NYT and see where your area compares. Looking at where you live, do you think your area provides enough health resources for those who can’t afford it?

All information for this post is from an article by The New York Times.

 

Adult Obesity Map

This is a map that we created based off of data from the Center for Disease Control. This information shows the percentage of adults that were classified as obese in the year 2010. Blue indicates areas with the lowest percentages, while red shows areas where obesity in adults is more prevalent. It is interesting to think about the fact that we have so much food here in the US, yet getting a hold of healthy options is more difficult then it should be. #foodforthought

City Population- IIED

This really interesting map on International Institute for Environment and Development’s website, iied.org, shows populations of cities with more then 500,000 people from 1800 to the predicted 2030. The visual that this map gives shows how big our world really is. With a little more than 7 billion people right now, by 2030 that amount will surely grow. Makes you think about what the health, environment, food and water situation will look like when the predicted population for 2030 will be more then 8 billion. I think that if we can increase education efforts on population rise and conservation efforts, we can help to lessen that number or at least be more prepared.

Below is a screenshot from iied.org of cities in 1800 that had more than 500,000 people. London and Beijing had more than a million and Guangzhou and Paris are between 500,000 and a million people.

Looking at 2015, you can see that 1,029 cities had populations larger than 500,000. Take a look at their site and see what the projection is for the year 2030! Thanks IIED for the cool map!

 

all information for this post from iied.org. contact vertices@gis.com. click here for the site.

CDC Stroke Death Rate

This CDC map displays stroke death rates from 2011-2013 in adults ages sixty-five and older. The data is taken from the National Vital Statistics System and the National Center for Health Statistics. This particular map shows all ethnic groups, and if you visit the site you can see other maps that focus on one ethnicity. Go to cdc.gov to see all the maps and to view more information !

 

 

all information for this post from cdc.gov. Click here to see the site. Contact gis@vertices.com.