This measure is based on survey responses to the question: “Thinking about your physical health, which includes physical illness and injury, for how many days during the past 30 days was your physical health not good?” The value reported in the County Health Rankings is the average number of days a county’s adult respondents report that their physical health was not good. The measure is age-adjusted to the 2000 US population.

This measure is based on survey responses to the question: “Thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?” The value reported in the County Health Rankings is the average number of days a county’s adult respondents report that their mental health was not good. The measure is age-adjusted to the 2000 US population.

Self-reported health status is a general measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a population. This measure is based on survey responses to the question: “In general, would you say that your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?” The value reported in the County Health Rankings is the percentage of adult respondents who rate their health “fair” or “poor.” The measure is age-adjusted to the 2000 US population. Respondents were adults (age 18 and more).

Primary care physicians include practicing physicians (M.D.'s) specializing in general practice medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology. The measure represents the number of primary care physicians and the rate of primary care physicians per 100,000 population. Access to care requires not only financial coverage, but also, access to providers.

Premature Deaths (Less Than 75 Years) is the number of deaths under age 75. Measuring premature mortality, rather than overall mortality, reflects the County Health Rankings’ intent to focus attention on deaths that could have been prevented.

Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) is the years of potential life lost before age 75 (YPLL-75). Every death occurring before the age of 75 contributes to the total number of years of potential life lost. For example, a person dying at age 25 contributes 50 years of life lost, whereas a person who dies at age 65 contributes 10 years of life lost to a county's YPLL. The YPLL measure is presented as a rate per 100,000 population and is age-adjusted to the 2000 US population.

Diabetic Monitoring is the percentage of diabetic fee-for-service Medicare patients ages 65-75 whose blood sugar control was monitored in the past year using a test of their glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) are measured as the chlamydia incidence (number of new cases reported) per 100,000 population. We provided both the rate of Chlamydia cases per 100,000 population and the number of Chlamydia cases.

Adult Smoking is the percentage of the adult population that currently smokes every day or most days and has smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime.

Excessive Drinking is the percentage of adults that report either binge drinking, defined as consuming more than 4 (women) or 5 (men) alcoholic beverages on a single occasion in the past 30 days, or heavy drinking, defined as drinking more than one (women) or 2 (men) drinks per day on average.

Adult Obesity is the percentage of the adult population (age 20 and older) that reports a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 kg/m2. Obesity is often the result of an overall energy imbalance due to poor diet and limited physical activity. Obesity increases the risk for health conditions such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, liver and gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, osteoarthritis, and poor health status.