This project was iniated for a presentation to a county board, hospital or other government officials. It is to show asthma hospitalizations for the San Francisco Bay Area. It seeks to find which counties, or ethnic groups may be more susceptible to asthma hospitalizations and therefore should receive more government or private funding. Factors shown for this determination include, total number of hospitalizations, county populations, air quality, race distribution and uninsured/unemployment rates.
Observations & Conclusions
Alameda and Santa Clara Counties have the largest populations. The largest ethnic group is Hispanic. The group with the most hospitalizations for Asthma is the African-American group. The most African Americans are concentrated in the Oakland, California area of Alameda County. The closest hospitals to this area are Oakland East and Oakland West hospitals.
It is this observers point of view that if funds were to be allocated. Alameda & Solano Counties should receive the dollars as they have large African American populations. These counties are also relatively uninsured and have higher unemployment. The air quality in these counties also are the worst in the Bay Area and which possibly points toward a correlation to the higher asthma hospitalization rates in these counties.
Some Issues: My hospital files seems to show varying amounts of hospitals. I think it has doubled up in some cases. I also had problems computing and showing "proximites" to hospitals in the Oakland, CA area due, I believe to the tainted hospital files.
