Mapping Public Health: The Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health

The Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health creates visual snapshots of reliable reproductive health data in the United States. The Atlas integrates reproductive health data into a Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to provide data and visual details to users at the national, state and local levels. Organizations and individuals can use the Atlas in various ways to analyze demographic data and trends and to make comparisons across geographic boundaries.

CDC designed the Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health to be user friendly. Persons with limited epidemiological experience or who are not familiar with GIS or statistics will be able to use the Atlas with minimal difficulty. Potential users include:

• Local and community health project managers

• Clinical service providers

• Public health program staff

• Policymakers

• Grant writers

The Atlas uses reproductive health indicators that can be sorted by age, race, and ethnicity to examine a variety of health concerns for program planning, advocacy, monitoring, evaluating programs and understanding reproductive health needs in a section of the country. These reproductive health indicators include fetal and infant mortality, infant health, pregnancy outcomes, maternal characteristics and interventions, and teen risk factors.

History of GIS at the Coordinating Center for Health Promotion

The Atlas of Reproductive Health is the second interactive atlas developed by CDC’s Coordinating Center for Health Promotion (CoCHP). The first, the Heart Disease and Stroke Atlases, was developed by CoCHP’s Cardiovascular Health Branch, now known as Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. The tool, also known as the CVH Atlas, was based on work begun in 2000.

The graphical user interface and database structure for the Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health were patterned on the CVH Atlas. However, the scope of the reproductive health tool grew far beyond that of the CVH Atlas. Currently, the Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health is by far the biggest and most robust of all the Coordinating Center for Health Promotion atlases. Since its 2003 release, the Interactive Atlas of Reproductive Health has had two technology updates, one data update, and several data and functionality patches and corrections.

In addition to Health Disease and Stroke and Reproductive Health, other on-line GIS resources include Global Cancer Atlas, Diabetes Data and Trends, Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System, and Oral Health Maps.

For more information on GIS at CDC

• GIS: Linking Public Health Data and Geography
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) at CDC