Arundel Metrics

Learning about Public Health Data Analysis and Presentation of Findings

by Nethmi Bathige

Introduction

Arundel Metrics is a firm that excels in analyzing and presenting complex data on public health in the United States. It is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and is a small company that employs about seven epidemiologists and a few interns. Arundel Metrics prides itself on having written America’s Health ranking for 30 years. This is a state-by-state comparison of population health that combines various metrics consisting of behaviors, community and environment, policy, clinical care, and health outcomes into a single comparative ranking of state health. Arundel also works with analyzing secondary data and conducts literature reviews on health topics to write and publish reports. The mission of Arundel Metrics is to “Create insights through analysis, interpretation, and visualization of complex health, economic and social data to end inequities and improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities” (Arundel Metrics).

In order to achieve this mission, they produce many reports on topics such as an Annual Report, a Report on Health of Women and Children, a COVID-19 Report, a Senior Report, and a Veteran Report. They also hire two interns who are graduate students working on public health degrees and can use their coursework to help with work on conducting literature reviews, writing public health impact statements on various health topics, and checking the accuracy of data. In addition to these graduate student interns, they also work with undergraduate students like me who may have budding interests in public health data analysis and epidemiology.

Background

Image Credits : Arundel Metrics

I decided to complete this internship because I had an interest in public health data analysis. Having taken two classes in analyzing data, one called Statistical Research Methods in Geography and the other in Intro to Statistical Modeling, I thought I wanted an experience that specifically applied to public health work. I received this internship offer right in the middle of the pandemic and I was even more driven to pursue this internship because of all the public health data that I encountered in the world of COVID-19. I think it was really important to analyze and present public health data to wider audiences because it would help public health officials on the federal, state, and local levels to make the necessary interventions as a way to better the health of the population.

Another important part of this work done by Arundel Metrics is that their final reports and findings are available to the public on their website. So, this would help health practitioners and epidemiologists easily access their findings for future work. It is vital that the work on health rankings is carried out by epidemiologists who have years of experience doing this because of how easy it is for there to be misleading information with regards to public health statistics and data. After completing this internship, I also understood that public health data analysis is important because it allows reduced costs in healthcare if interventions and improvements are carried out at the right time.

What I Learned

Through this experience, I learned many skills in public health data analysis. My independent project at Arundel involved helping complete tasks for an epidemiologist and Macalester alum, Alexia Malaga. I worked with secondary data that was from the 2021 iteration of America’s Health Ranking Senior Report. I learned to use Microsoft Excel to analyze the data for writing this report. The final product of my work involved analyzing the data for the Senior Report and presenting my findings to the epidemiologists at Arundel.

For my project, I looked at data collected for food insecurity, flu vaccination, exercise levels, pneumonia vaccination, and physical inactivity among seniors. While creating a final presentation, I learned how to communicate and present quantitatively analyzed public health data using plain language writing. For each of the measures mentioned above, I carried out calculations and data analysis to find out if the measure has improved from the previous year to now. I created bar graphs and scatter plots after analyzing the data in Excel and included these data visualizations as an alternative way to present the data in the presentation. The bar charts I created showed the changes that took place for each variable within one year for each state. I selected the states that showed the greatest changes between each year on the bar charts. Through completing this project, I gained more proficiency in Microsoft Excel and learned to use functions such as VLOOKUP, RANK, ROUND and macros to help create graphs and analyze the data.

Top Image Caption: Author's Work on one of the senior report metrics on food security

Bottom Image Caption: The America's Health Rankings Model which includes four drivers of health, in turn all of this influences the fifth model category of health outcomes

Conclusion

Through working at this small public health organization, I gained exposure to the work carried out by epidemiologists. From even assisting with a small portion of their data analysis work, I believe I helped to analyze health behaviors, public health policies, and community and environmental conditions data that provide a holistic view of the health of the people in the United States.

References

Arundel Metrics.https://arundelmetrics.com/

About Myself

Hello! My name is Nethmi Bathige and I am from Colombo, Sri Lanka. I am a graduating senior at Macalester College majoring in Biology and Geography with concentrations in Community and Global Health (CGH) and Food, Agriculture and Society (FAS). While at Macalester, I developed an interest in food security, nutrition and public health, and I was able to complete work experiences and internships related to these interests. I am currently completing my senior honors thesis titled ‘Food Security and Dietary Diversity among Organic and Conventional Smallholder Tea Farmers in Sri Lanka”. After graduation, I hope to pursue future graduate studies in geography related to food security, dietary diversity, nutrition and health geographies.

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