Aggregate Health Status: a benchmark index for community health.

A qualitative review of population health assessment models used throughout the United States and Canada indicate both individual and community-level domains of health. Individual-level domains of health include health habits, education, public safety, environment, social, government, culture, and mobility. Community-level domains include the same general health domains but aggregated to the community level Aggregate Health Status (AHS). In the development of the AHS portion of our model, the dependent variable was the general health question from the Medical Outcomes Study. The remainder of the survey was partitioned into mutually exclusive individual measure subsets. A linear combination of these global variables then produces a single estimate relating the multiple domains of the broader determinants of health to health status. This global variable uniquely discriminates between the five categories of general health. This model serves as a framework and benchmark indicator that (1) provides a summary indicator of the overall health status of the population, (2) is broadly representative of populations rather than individuals, (3) is a population perspective rather than a provider perspective, and (4) emphasizes outcomes versus inputs and processes.