Cardiovascular Risk Index in Counties That Lack a Cardiologist

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We sourced data for the cardiovascular risk index from the 2023 CDC PLACES dataset and took into account the prevalence rates for adult obesity, diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Each county was assigned a binary score of 0 or 1, where 1 is assigned to a county if the prevalence rate is greater than the national average for that measure. Otherwise, the county is assigned a 0. The composite cardiovascular risk index is the sum of these five binary values. For additional details, please refer to the methods section of the published article: Kim, J. H., et al. (2024). Geographic disparities in access to cardiologists in the United States. Journal of the American College of Cardiology.