Citation

Pittman J, Andrews H, Struening E. Eval. Program Plann. 1986; 9(4): 309-317.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1986, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0149-7189(86)90045-5

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Social area analysis (SAA) is a well-established methodology for geographically based analysis of service delivery and other health related outcome measures. However, SAA has been limited in application by (a) the complexities of computerized geocoding and (b) difficulties in obtaining appropriate measures of community characteristics. In this paper we demonstrate that these problems can be overcome by (a) employing zip code as the unit of analysis for SAA and (b) obtaining commerically available measures of community characteristics. Regression analyses, using New York City zip code populations as the unit of observation were used to illustrate the role of epidemiologic risk factors in predicting rates of inpatient discharges and ambulatory care visits.