How were the life stage grades for health disparity assigned?
The life stage health disparity grades are based on a weighted proportion of subgroup grades that were less than the best grade achieved by any subgroup. The method is based on an approach recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Keppel K, Pamuk E, Lynch J, et al. Methodological issues in measuring health disparities. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital Health Stat 2(141. 2005). This approach is being used to monitor progress towards the Healthy People 2010 goals to eliminate health disparities by assessing disparity across multiple subgroups using an index of disparity. To calculate life stage health disparity scores, we assigned a score of 4 for an A, 3 for a B, 2 for a C, 1 for a D, and 0 for an F to each subgroup’s grade for mortality, and where applicable, unhealthy days. We then summed the differences between the best subgroup grade and each subgroup score, divided this sum by the number of subgroups minus one, and converted this score to a percen
