Create heat maps for
ambulatory, hospital, nursing home, and prescription expenses. Compare
these heat maps and write a paragraph noting similarities, differences,
and interesting or unusual patterns.
Prepare a single presentation
slide that summarizes national smoking-related health care costs by
selecting among the heat maps created in Problem 1. Enrich your map(s)
using the Annotate tool to add context. Add an appropriate amount
of narrative to the slide with the goal of demonstrating the economic
impact of smoking.
The file CA_Counties.xlsx
contains smoking-related information for the state of California by
county. Create a heat map for the state of California for the Direct
Costs. Which map, the national or state map, would you recommend
to use for the smoking cessation class? Explain your reasoning.
The CDC (and other organizations
that report health care information) frequently use estimation methods
to obtain macro-level data such as the state-wide smoking-related
health care costs used in this case. Why is this done? Why is it
important for an analyst to understand the estimation method associated
with such as data set?