Glossary

American Community Survey (ACS)

A U.S. Census Bureau program that helps understand changes in demographic, economic, educational, and other aspects of people in the US territory.

County Business Patterns (CBP)

A U.S. Census Bureau program and an annual series that provides economic data for establishments with paid employees by industry and employment size.

Later Life Social Isolation Risk Index (LSRI)

A statistical tool that represents the needs of older adults and the shortage of social fabric and aging and disability services in a geographic area of the United States. LSRI is based on public data from ACS and CBP. It is a t-score calculated from the average of four components, where each component is a t-score itself. Here are the four components before transformation into t-scores:

1. 85+ score %: Population 85 years and older expressed as a percentage of population 65 years and older (ACS table B01001).
2. Disability score %: Population with a disability, expressed as a percentage of civilian, noninstitutionalized population 65 years and older (ACS table B18101).
3. Living alone score %: Population living alone, expressed as a percentage of population 65 years and older (Census table B09020).
4. Aging services score %: Ratio of aging and disability service providers to the population 65 years and older. For maps of states, this ratio is calculated for each state. For maps of counties, this ratio is calculated for each county. For maps of tracts, this ratio is calculated for each county and kept the same for every tract in the county.

t-score

A revised form of a score, commonly used in health measurement, university admissions, intelligence tests, and personality assessments (Streiner, 2015, p. 141). The scores are scaled and shifted so that their average is set to 50 and their standard deviation is set to 10, as can be seen in the County charts and Tract charts above. We adopt this formulation for its familiarity, as it resembles a percentage. Combining t-scores is a more robust technique than just adding or averaging disparate measures, because t-scores standardize their scale, their variability, and thus their contribution to a composite index (Streiner, 2015, ch. 7).

The t-scores shown in this page are calculated with respect to the complete national dataset. For example, a score of 50 in the counties tab is equal to the national average of all counties covered by the dataset. This allows us to compare how do states, counties, and tracts fare nationally on the LSI and its components.

t-scores are best suited for normally distributed data; however, we acknowledge that the data shown above is not normally distributed.

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Representations and Warranties

Claude Pepper Center provides Maps and Dashboards “as is.” Claude Pepper Center does not represent or warrant that insights from our Maps and Dashboards are statistically significant, free of inaccuracies or errors, and/or representative of any population or territory whatsoever. Claude Pepper Center hereby disclaims any and all implied warranties, including without limitation, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, and non-infringement.

Suggested Citation

Claude Pepper Center (2024). 2018-2022 Later Life Social Isolation Risk Index (LSRI). Tallahassee: Florida State University. fsu.edu | archive.org

References

Streiner, D. L., Norman, G. R., & Cairney, J. (2015). Health measurement scales: A practical guide to their development and use (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi.org | archive.org

U.S. Census Bureau. (2023, December 07). American Community Survey (ACS) 2018-2022 5-Year Data Release [dataset]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. census.gov | archive.org

U.S. Census Bureau (2022). American Community Survey (ACS) 2022 ACS Table List. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. census.gov | archive.org | census.gov | archive.org

U.S. Census Bureau (2022). Census Data API: Variables in /data/2022/acs/acs5/variables. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. census.gov

U.S. Census Bureau (2022). County Business Patterns [dataset]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. census.gov | archive.org

U.S. Census Bureau (2022). TIGER/Line Shapefiles. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce. census.gov | archive.org