Indicators for Chronic Disease Surveillance

Chronic diseases account for seven of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States, including the three leading causes of preventable death (tobacco use, improper diet and physical inactivity, and alcohol use). Seventy percent of health-care costs in the United States are for chronic diseases. In 1999, to allow public health officials to uniformly define, collect, and report chronic disease data, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists released Indicators for Chronic Disease Surveillance. The report provided standard definitions for 73 indicators developed by epidemiologists and chronic disease program directors at the state and federal level. The indicators were selected because of their importance to public health and the availability of state-level data. This report describes the latest revisions to the chronic disease indicators. The revised set of 92 indicators includes 63 indicators that were unchanged from the first edition, six that have been revised, and 23 that are new. Four indicators from the first edition were deleted. Of the indicators, 24 are for cancer; 15 for cardiovascular disease; 11 for diabetes; seven for alcohol; five each for nutrition and tobacco; three each for oral health, physical activity, and renal disease; and two each for asthma, osteoporosis, and immunizations. The remaining 10 indicators cover such overarching conditions as poverty, education, life expectancy, and health insurance. Additional information regarding the indicators for chronic disease surveillance is available at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/cdi.