Title

The title of the map or table includes four elements:

• Name of the reproductive health indicator being analyzed (e.g., Fetal and Infant Mortality)

• Administrative name of geographic area of the map view (e.g., Texas)

• Geographic layer being analyzed (e.g., Smoothed Counties)

• Time period of the data being analyzed (e.g.,2002)

Subtitle

The subtitle of the map or table displays the demographic selections the user has chosen to define the map population. Example: All Infants; all races; all ethnicities; and both sexes. This example represents the default subtitle for infant mortality

Legend

Two methods of map classification are offered by the Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health for area analysis. The map classifications reveal the spatial patterns on a thematic map, and are displayed with a monochromic color ramp. In addition, three special classes are also included, and are displayed with a gray color ramp.

• The default classification method is equal interval. Four equal interval classes are displayed for each map. They are based on the range of the rates for the selected map area and demographic population.
  Example: If the range of rates is 5.6 to 14.4, then the interval is 2.2 and the class groups will be 5.6–7.8, 7.8–10.0, 10.0–12.2, and 12.2–14.4 This is determined for each map area and will vary from map to map depending on the range of the rates in the area being analyzed.

• The second classification method is quantiles. Quantiles are groups with equal numbers of members. Four quantile (quartile) classes are displayed for each map.
  Example: If the chosen map area is Georgia and the analysis units are counties, then each class will contain 40 of the 159 counties in Georgia (one will contain 39) based on their hierarchal order. The range for each class becomes the upper and lower limit within each group. This is determined for each map area and will vary from map to map depending on the range of the rates in the area being analyzed.

• The three special classes are no events, insufficient data, and no population. No events occurs when the event of interest—for example infant deaths—is zero. Insufficient data occurs where there are events, but the number is so small that the rate is unstable and therefore not uninterpretable. No population means that there is no population available from which to draw events, based on the demographic or risk categories used.

Footnotes

 Additional information is added below the maps or tables to help evaluate the information

• The rate for the selected map extent (view area).

• The national rate.

• The upper and lower 10% rates for the nation for the chosen demographic group.

• Healthy People 2000 and Healthy People 2010 target rates, where available.

• Data source.

• Other important notes and cautions.

Page last reviewed: 7/28/08
Page last modified: 1/29/07
Content source: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion