How were the life stage grades for health assigned?
In order to give Wisconsin and its residents grades for the health outcomes of mortality and unhealthy days, we created grading scales. We looked at the distribution of health within each life stage for each of the 50 states to see how spread out each state’s rate was from the average for the life stage (see figure below for an example for working-age adult mortality). We then assigned cutoff points for grades based on distance from the average (i.e., based on standard deviations from the mean). Rates that were closest to the average (between 0.5 standard deviations below the mean to 0.5 standard deviations above the mean) were assigned a C. Rates that were further away above and below the average were assigned a D (0.5 to 1.5 standard deviations above the mean) or a B (1.5 to 0.5 standard deviations below the mean) respectively. The highest (worst) rates were assigned Fs (more than 1.5 standard deviations above the mean) and the lowest (best rates) were assigned As (more than 1.5 stan
