The selected set of measures are based on chronic disease public health priorities and impact. The measures include the risk behaviors that cause much of the illness, suffering, and early death related to chronic diseases and conditions, as well as the conditions and diseases that are the most common, costly, and preventable of all health problems.
Most measures included in PLACES align with the work of the Chronic Disease Indicators (CDI), which is a partnership between CDC, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists. Many of our colleagues at state health departments across the country were engaged in the process of arriving at comprehensive measure definitions that include the background, significance, limitations of the indicator, data source, and limitations of the data resources. The definitions for the measures used in PLACES and the 500 Cities Project are the same as those for CDI for all but a handful of measures.