Identifying Bright Spots in Appalachian Health: Statistical Analysis

July 2018
G. Mark Holmes, Nancy M. Lane, William Holding, Randy Randolph, Jonathan Rodgers, Pam Silberman, Lisa Villamil, Thomas A. Arcury, Kelly Ivey, Daniel Goolsby, Ashli Keyser, and J&J Editorial
Appalachian Regional Commission; PDA, Inc.; Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The second report in a series exploring health issues in Appalachia, Identifying Bright Spots in Appalachian Health: Statistical Analysis describes the results of a regression analysis used to assess how each of the Appalachian Region’s 420 counties scored on 19 different health indicators, and then identifies counties with better-than-expected outcomes, given their characteristics and resource levels. Through this process, 42 Appalachian counties were classified as "Bright Spot" counties.

This report follows the series' first report, Health Disparities in Appalachia, and is a companion piece to the third report, Exploring Bright Spots in Appalachian Health: Case Studies.

Full Report (PDF: 6.5 MB)

Executive Summary (PDF: 735 KB)

Report Data Files

County-Level Data (Excel file: 2.1 MB)

Data Sources (Excel file: 20 KB)

Multivariate Regression Results (Excel file: 2 MB)

Univariate Regression Results (Excel file: 52 KB)

Euclidean Distance Analysis (Excel file: 50 KB)