Published 21 May 2021
While essential for policy-making, reliable local estimates are difficult to compute from a survey due to the limited sample size of a typical "small area." Drs. Saumyadipta Pyne and Shaina Stacy, and collaborators, designed a new 2-step method for spatial re-scaling of survey data (using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)) thereby allowing the use of local covariates to produce precise smoking rate of every census tract in Allegheny County, PA.
Their study, Rescaling and Small Area Estimation of Health Survey Data as applied to Smoking Rates in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is in preprint. (Image courtesy: Wikipedia)