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About the Index
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The U.S. HIV/AIDS Index is a project of the National Minority Quality Forum. The data were collected and analyzed by National Minority Quality Forum staff in partnership with the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the School of Public Health & Health Services at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
The U.S. HIV/AIDS Index is an important step in stemming the tide of the disease and enabling communities to understand the reality of the disease today. It allows users to focus on available HIV/AIDS statistics at the national, state, U.S. congressional district and county levels, further segmented by age, gender and race/ethnicity. Mapping the disease reveals visible health-disparity zones around the country so we can improve surveillance, prevention initiatives, early diagnosis, and routine testing efforts in the hardest-hit communities.
Methodology
Data Sources
In June 2008, data requests for the numbers of persons living with HIV (non-AIDS) and AIDS, at any time between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006, cross-tabulated by county, age, gender, and race/ethnicity, were sent via e-mail to the HIV/AIDS-surveillance branches within the departments of health in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands for the years 2005, 2006, and 2007. Data from the year 2006 were used unless these data were not available from the states. The request specified that if the department could not provide data at the county level, the department should aggregate the data to a region or state level. (The term region is used generically to refer to an aggregation of more than one county.) E-mail requests were followed up with telephone calls when necessary. If states were unable to fulfill the request, the numbers of persons living with HIV (non-AIDS) and AIDS were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV/AIDS 2006 Surveillance Report [1].
Prevalence Estimation
The population in each county as reported in the 2000 US census [2] was used as an estimate for the number of persons in each county. For states that provided region or state-level data, the census estimates were aggregated to the same geographic areas.
“From a healthcare policy perspective, the U.S. HIV/AIDS Index provides us with the tools to direct needed resources towards early detection, surveillance, education, and treatment.
I look forward to working with the Forum and colleagues to use the index as a tool to improve health equity, particularly among communities disproportionately impacted by HIV and AIDS.”
— Goulda A. Downer, PhD, RD, LN, CNS
Principal Investigator & Assistant Professor
National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center
College of Medicine, Howard University
