Health Statistics and Research > Health Statistics
Behavioral Health Risks for Local Areas
 
Pennsylvania's 2011 BRFSS survey was divided evenly among eight geographic areas: six Pennsylvania health districts and Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties.  As a result, Pennsylvania was able to produce eight regional reports with comparisons to Pennsylvania based on analysis of data collected from these geographic areas.  The 2012 and 2013 BRFSS surveys are organized in the same manner and similar reports will be released in the future for those years.  
 
The 2011 survey marks the first year in which the Pennsylvania BRFSS collected data from both landline and cell phone repondents.  To allow for the incorporation of cell phone data, a new weighting methodology called iterative proportional fitting or raking was implemented in 2011.  A detailed explanation of raking can be referenced in our Changes in the BRFSS Weighting Methodology document.  These methodological changes will cause breaks in BRFSS trends, but they will also significantly improve the accuracy, coverage, validity, and representativeness of the Pennsylvania BRFSS.  Therefore, measures should be re-benchmarked at the 2011 estimate values, and not compared to BRFSS estimates from previous years.
 
Prior to 2010, Pennsylvania offered the BRFSS Local Sampling Program from 2002 to 2009. Participation in the Pennsylvania BRFSS Local Sampling Program was open to Pennsylvania's State Health Improvement (SHIP)-affiliated partnerships located statewide.  Each partnership selected a county or group of counties to sample.  They also chose up to 56 questions to include in their questionnaires, in addition to the mandatory core questions asked by all who participate in BRFSS.
 
The following links contain .PDF documents of these reports for each participating partnership by year of participation along with a link to the 2010 regional report. 
(please use internal bookmarks to navigate):
 
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