PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Version 1: June 2010
Introduction
PHACS, Public Health in Arkansas Community Search, is an interactive website where anyone can find
out public health facts in Arkansas. There are over 100 health indicators available under many different
health topics. To find out more information about PHACS, visit our website at www.uams.edu/phacs. For
the latest news and updates, visit www.uams.edu/phacs/news.aspx.
Table of Contents
Selecting a County to Begin Query ……………………………………………..…. Page 1
Selecting a Health Indicator for the County …………………………………… Page 2
View Health Indicator Query Results for the County …………………….. Page 4
Options Menu ………………………………………………………………………………. Page 8
View County Maps ………………………………………………………………………… Page 11
View County Profile Reports………………………………………………………….. Page 12
View Other County Level Reports …………………………………………………..Page 13
Other Resources ……………………………………………………………………………. Page 14
Help ………………………………………………………………………………………………. Page 14
Selecting a County to Begin Query
Select a County from Home Page. Start any search by selecting a county on the map or by selecting a
county from the drop down box on the right side of the screen. Place the cursor over the map to see the
county names. Once you click on a county on the map or choose a county from the drop down list, the
next screen should be a query screen called Select Indicator to View the (county that was selected).
This page can always be accessed again by going back to the home page.
Figure 1: PHACS Home Page
Figure 2: County drop-down list
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
2
Selecting a Health Indicator for the County
The next step to selecting a health indicator for a county is to select the category in which the indicator is
located. Categories of health topics include:





Social Environment: includes demographics such as population, income, and education
Access to Health Care: includes factors such as number of doctors, dentists, and
hospitals within each county
Behavior Risks: includes risk factor information such as number of smokers, binge
drinking, and teen drug use
Preventive Care and Screenings: includes information about preventive care such as
number of women receiving pap tests and mammograms
Health Outcomes and Mortality: includes information about number of individuals with
diabetes, heart disease, and mortality rates
Choose only one category from the drop down list in Step 1. Once a category is chosen, a description of
the category will pop up on the right side of the screen in a
yellow box.
Figure 4: Step 1, choose a category from the
Category drop down list
Figure 3: Select Indicator for County Query Page
Figure 5: By choosing a category, you can view the
description for that category.
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
To View more information about the category, click on the See More Info link inside the paragraph. This
should show more information about the selected category.
Figure 6: Viewing the entire category description
In Step 2, choose an indicator from the list. The indicators are related to the category chosen in step 1.
The description for the indicator can be
viewed in the same way as the category
description. By choosing an indicator,
the description will appear on the right
side of the screen. Click on See More
Info to view more information about the
health indicator.
Figure 7: Select an Indicator from the drop down list
Figure 8: View Health Indicator Description
The last step on this page is to click on the submit option to view information on the selected indicator.
Figure 9: Submit your selections
3
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
View Health Indicator Query Results for the County
The Health Indicator Results page displays the query results from the health indicator that was chosen in
the previous page and the county that was selected on the home page. The indicator results page
displays the results from the query in a table format. Below the table are the description of the
indicator, how to cite the source of the data, and more information about the quintile ranking. On the
right side of the screen, an options menu is available to distribute the results.
Figure 10: Health Indicator Query Results
Figure 11: Health Indicator Table Results
4
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
In the data results table, the name of the indicator should appear at the top along with the text that says
“(View County Map)”. By clicking on the name of the indicator you will see a county map of Arkansas
showing how the indicator is represented across the state. In the below example, the counties with the
most teen drug use are represented by the darker color. A legend at the side of the map shows the
colors associated with each range.
The county map is
accessible from different
areas of the PHACS
website: From the
indicator query results, the
Select County Maps link,
profile results, and through
the health indicator
definitions.
Figure 12: County Map
Each county map contains the description of the indicator, the citation for the source of the information,
a table of the values for each county for the indicator, and more information about the quintile ranking.
The county table can be exported to Excel for further data analysis.
Access the county profile report by clicking
on any county in the state map. The county
profile report will open for the selected
county. The report will automatically be
sent to the page that displays the same
indicator from the map it was selected
from. The county profile reports are
accessible from different areas of the
PHACS website: By going to County Profile
Reports link on the home page, or by
clicking on any county on the County Map
for any health indicator.
Figure 1: County Profile Report
5
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Figure 2: County Table
Use the top navigation (also called breadcrumbs) to navigate back to the indicator data results.
Breadcrumbs are present on most of the pages on the PHACS website to help navigate through the
website easily.
Figure 13: Use top navigation to go back to the query results
6
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Figure 14: Health Indicator Query Table Results
The Health Indicator Query Table Results also shows the following information:
County: The County selected in the query.
Source of Information: The data source where the information was retrieved.
Year(s) Related to Data: The year(s) associated with the data.
Measure: A measure of how the indicator is represented (e.g., percent, count).
Value for the County: The value for the selected county and health indicator.
*Ranking Compared to other Counties:
This is a result of quintile ranking for all 75 counties in Arkansas. The rankings are assigned by placing
the counties into five equal groups by the occurrence of the health indicator. If a county value exist is
two adjacent groups, then the county is moved to the quintile group with the most favorable rating.
Quintile 1 - Highest, represents the counties with the most favorable health ranking (in demographics,
this represents highest occurrence of the demographic)
Quintile 2 - Higher, represents the counties with the second highest favorable health ranking (in
demographics, this represents counties between the highest and mid-range occurrence of the
demographic)
Quintile 3 - Middle, represents the counties in the mid-range favorable ranking (in demographics, this
represents counties within the middle range occurrence of the demographic)
Quintile 4 - Lower, represents the counties with a lower favorable health ranking( in demographics, this
represents counties between mid-range and lowest occurrence of the demographic)
7
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Quintile 5 - Lowest, represents the counties with the least favorable health ranking (in demographics,
this represents counties with the lowest occurrence of the demographic )
State of Arkansas Value: The value for the entire state of Arkansas and health indicator.
Options Menu
The options menu is present on any page that shows results from a query. This can be
accessed on the health indicator query results page, county map pages, and category
profile results pages.
Printer Friendly: Print out a printer friendly version of the query results
Figure 3: Options
Menu
Figure 4: Printer Friendly Version of the Query Results Page
8
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Export to Excel: This option will export the table results to an Excel Spreadsheet. Note: If you are using
Microsoft Excel 2007 or greater, you may receive the following error message. Choose yes to open the
file.
Figure 5: Excel Warning Message from Excel 2007
Figure 6: Excel Spreadsheet with Query Results
Note: Maps are not exported to MS Excel
Email Results: This option will email the table results. To send results through email, enter your name,
email address, the recipient’s name, and the recipient’s email address. All of the fields are required
except for your name. Click on the submit button to send the email.
Figure 7: Email Results
9
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
County Profile Report: This option opens the County Profile Report. All of the county profile reports are
available in PDF format only. To open these reports, Adobe Reader must already be installed.
Figure 8: County Profile Report
Category Profile Report: This option opens another page that displays all the indicators in the selected
category for the selected county. The category profile report is only available through the indicator
query results page. By clicking on the health indicator name, the county map for that indicator will be
displayed.
Figure 9: Category Profile Report
(Behavioral Risks Profile is shown in this
example)
10
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Figure 10: County Map for Number of Adult Smokers
View County Maps
To View County maps without going through choosing a county, click on Select County Maps on the
Home Page or the left side navigation bar. Select a category and health indicator in the same manner as
they would for selecting an indicator for a specific county (see page 2). Click on the submit button to
view the county map for the selected indicator.
Figure 11: Select Indicator for Viewing County Map
11
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Figure 12: County Map Results
from Selecting Health Indicator
to View Map.
View County Profile Reports
Access County Profile Reports directly by going to the County Profile Reports Link on the Home Page.
Select a county from the map or from the county drop down list (similar to the same method used on
the home page, see page 2.)
Figure 13: Select
County to view County
Profile Report
12
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Figure 14: County Profile Report
View Other County Level Reports
Future reports will be available on the Other County Level Reports Link. Check for new reports by visiting
the Latest News and Updates link at the top right of the screen.
Figure 15: County Level Reports Page
13
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Other Resources
Check the Related Links to view more information about each of the data sources and view other
resources on gathering county level data.
Figure 16
Help
Check the Help section of the website to view frequently asked questions and health indicator
definitions.
Figure 17
14
PHACS Public Health in Arkansas Communities Search User Guide
Health Indicator Definitions are available in the Help Section. Click on the Health Indicator name to view
the county map.
Figure 18: Health Indicator Definitions
15