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Overview of
Data Sources
Population
Census data and county estimates from the
U.S. Census Bureau were used to calculate the
size of the population at the county-level for
each of the Border States. Population figures
used for calculating the health provider-to-population
ratios in this report are based on updated data
from the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division,
Population Estimates Program (Release Date:
August 11, 2005).
Prevalence Data
Data for 2002 from the Behavioral Risk Factor
Surveillance System (BRFSS) were used to estimate
the proportion of the population: without health
coverage; ever diagnosed with diabetes; who
are overweight or obese; who have had a dental
visit within the past year; and, who currently
have asthma. In addition, the proportions of
females who had a pap smear or mammogram were
also estimated.
The BRFSS is a survey that collects information
about adults (18 and older and living in households);
persons younger than 18 are not represented
by the survey results provided in this report.
While the sample allows estimates to be produced
for areas, such as the Border regions in each
of the Border States, most counties do not have
large enough samples to produce reliable estimates
for individual counties.
State Licensure Data
Agencies in each State that handle data for
licensed health professionals were contacted
to obtain data. Among these agencies are State
boards for physicians, dentists, registered
nurses, physician assistants, psychologists,
and social workers. Additionally, specialty
information or another designator was sometimes
included in the data sets and psychiatrists
and three categories of specialty nurses were
also identified.
Delays in obtaining data resulted in inconsistencies
in the reporting date of the data as most licensing
boards process and compile data requests on
an as needed basis and this Study may have had
a lower priority rating at one board than at
others. Reporting dates were included in the
respective tables in the report.
The health professions data used in this report,
in most cases, were purchased from the respective
Board in each State. Licensure Boards most often
receive requests for mailing lists. Consequently,
for some boards, a mailing list was purchased
only when no other data was available for analysis.
Some boards were able to include additional
variables to mailing lists.
State Health Data
Vital statistics, hospital discharge, and
incidence data for selected diseases were also
acquired from State health departments to present
the health status of the regions as well as
State totals. Healthy Border 2010 Objectives
guided the selection of health indicators used
in this report.
Acquisition of incidence data for breast and
cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis A and B,
and tuberculosis were met with reservations
and/or concerns regarding patient confidentiality
and potential identification of a patient. Data
were de-identified and only used to produce
statistical tables. Table cells with numbers
smaller than 5 were suppressed.
Confidentiality agreements were provided to
agencies and approvals acquired by the agencies
Internal Review Board (IRB). In some cases,
agencies limited access to incidence data for
breast and cervical cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis
A and B, and tuberculosis to reports aggregated
to the county-level.
Description
of Geocoding Process
State Licensure Data
Data received from State licensure boards
or State organizations were “geocoded”
using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software
in an effort to determine the location of the
health professional. This permitted assignment
of health professionals to a county based on
the county Federal Information Processing Standards
(FIPS) code assigned by the GIS software. The
following process describes the method by which
an address was “geocoded.” The address
used was determined by research staff (in consultation
with the suppliers of the data when possible)
to best represent the practice location of the
health professional. Using batch processing,
on the first pass, addresses were matched only
on the exact street name, house number and zip
code. On the second pass135,
addresses were matched by “relaxing”
the zip code; this allowed a match for address
in a different zip code. On the third pass,
street name and house number for the address
were relaxed to allow matches for parameters
similar to address components (such as misspellings
to be matched to the address). On the final
geocoding pass (usually by this stage only a
small percentage of records were not matched),
records were matched by zip code only. Once
these passes were complete, remaining unmatched
records were viewed through interactive mode
in GIS to determine if a match could be made
by searching for visible errors in the address
field. Once geocoding was completed, data were
moved into Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS) software. The remaining unmatched
records were assigned a county in SPSS based
on the city name. For example, since PO Box
addresses could not be geocoded, they were assigned
a county FIPS code based on the name of the
city.
State Health Data
Health related information such as vital statistics,
hospital discharge, and incidence data, were
usually assigned a county code by the State
agency/office responsible for the data. Data
reported here reflects place of residence of
each case, not the place of occurrence.
Data from Licensing
Boards in New Mexico
New Mexico data for each health profession
discussed in this report were received from
the New Mexico Health Policy Commission (NMHPC)
and reflect a date of December 2003.
Data for the health professions described in
this report were submitted to the NMHPC via
the Geographic Access Database System (GADS).
GADS is a system which allows for the collection
of health professions data for the purpose of
improving access to health services in New Mexico.
The NMHPC began data collection under New Mexico
law in 1999. While New Mexico has the capacity
to record data related to the sex and age of
health professionals, it does not currently
collect data related to race/ethnicity.
The following table illustrates the proportion
of data that is not available (NA) by type of
variable for the following health professionals:
Proportion of Missing
Data for Physicians, Dentists, and Registered
Nurses in New Mexico
| Variable |
Physicians |
Dentists |
Registered Nurses |
| Race/Ethnicity |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Age |
<1.0 |
<1.0 |
0.0 |
| Gender |
22.6 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
| Patient
Care |
NA |
NA |
NA |
| Specialty |
16.3 |
NA |
A |
| Hours/Week
or Part-/Full-Time |
NA |
NA |
NA |
NA= Not available
A= Available
Obtaining codes to determine which health professionals
provide direct services to the population using
data from the NMHPC was not possible. Thus,
this report includes all professionals with
an active license and does not reflect the number
of health professionals providing direct patient
care in their respective health fields.
In regards to specialty data, a slightly large
proportion of data for physicians (16 percent)
was not entered into the system. While 17 percent
of allopathic physicians did not have specialty
information reported, specialty data was missing
for 93 percent of osteopathic physicians. Furthermore,
it is not known whether a large proportion of
these missing data were for active physicians
providing patient care or if missing data were
mostly comprised of physicians who were not
practicing. In the case of dentists, specialty
information was not available.
Finally, while specialty information was available
in the nurses’ file for nurse practitioners
and nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives
(CNMs) were not identified in this same file.
Information retrieved from the New Mexico Department
of Health at their website made it possible
to identify CNMs in the registered nurse file
made available by the NMHPC. Only those individuals
who were certified as a nurse midwife as of
December 2003, with an active status as a registered
nurse, were reported here as CNMs.
A second drawback of New Mexico data was the
availability of only a mailing address which
was geocoded to estimate the approximate location
of the health professional’s mailing address.
The primary problem with this assumption was
the inability to determine whether the mailing
address in the data set reflected the health
professional’s home or business/practice
address.
Data from Health
Offices in New Mexico
Vital Statistics
Vital statistics data for 2002 was received
from the Office of New Mexico Vital Records
and Health Statistics, New Mexico Department
of Health.
Hospital Discharges
Hospital discharge results for 2002 were received
from the New Mexico Health Policy Commission
(NMHPC)136
which has been in charge of collecting hospital
inpatient discharge data (HIDD) with the final
calendar quarter of 1990. The HIDD consists
of all hospital inpatient discharges from licensed,
non-federal hospitals in New Mexico.
Incidence Data
Breast and Cervical Cancer
Number of breast and cervical cancer cases
diagnosed from 1997 through 2001 were received
from the New Mexico Tumor Registry, University
of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque.
HIV/AIDS
Figures for HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed from
2001 through 2003 were received from HIV/AIDS
Epidemiology, New Mexico Department of Health.
Hepatitis A and B
Figures for Hepatitis A and B for 2002 and
2003 were received from the Hepatitis Program,
Public Health Division, New Mexico Department
of Health.
Tuberculosis
Figures for tuberculosis for the years 2002
and 2003 were provided by the Tuberculosis Program,
Public Health Division, New Mexico Department
of Health.
Immunizations
Information about childhood immunization status
for 2003 was obtained from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National Immunization
Program (NIP). While State level data were available
through NIP’s National Immunization Survey
(NIS), results were not available for all race/ethnic
groups. For New Mexico, State level results
were only available for Hispanics/Latinos(as).
The New Mexico Statewide Immunization Information
System (NMSIIS) was not used as data will not
be available until 2007. Data from this system
may not be complete since parents will have
the ability to “opt out” of reporting
to the system and provider participation in
NMSIIS is encouraged, but not mandated.
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