Color coding may enable health workers to identify trouble spots within their jurisdiction and to focus interventions on these areas. However, any such effort should be undertaken with the awareness that some rate estimates are quite unstable, given the small number of heart disease deaths occurring within certain municipalities. In practice, the comparatively small number of events in local jurisdictions often precludes further investigation of disease occurrence at higher “resolution”, e.g., census tract.
As a result, trends or problem foci occurring at the sub-municipal level may go undetected. In the face of such small numbers it can be advantageous, or even crucial, to examine disease occurrence data from more than one perspective. For example, pairing this map with the accompanying Heart Disease Death Kernel Density map may provide a more comprehensive, better-rounded interpretation of the distribution of heart disease occurrence in a given area.
The purpose of this map was to show the geographic variations in heart disease death occurrence; to inform local health department management, program staff, and relevant community groups and organizations of the burden of heart disease and to guide and monitor the focus of public health intervention.
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