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Can I use the county maps and estimates to make comparisons or rank counties?

April 26, 2017comparisons counties County estimates Maps rank

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Can I use the county maps and estimates to make comparisons or rank counties?

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Caution should be exercised in making comparisons based on the county maps and estimates. The estimates are intended as individual point estimates. Significance testing or hypothesis testing may be inappropriate. The maps are presented for displaying possible geographic patterns and stimulating further investigation, but are not intended as formal representations of similarities and differences. Bayesian 95% confidence intervals and standard deviations are provided as precision indicators of the individual county-level point estimates and should be used in data analyses. One should not assume that counties mapped in different colors have significantly different prevalence. The county estimates are grouped in categories by various methods to produce a state or national map. This grouping does not incorporate the standard deviation or confidence interval and does not imply any formal comparison between counties.