Each state report card has three components: health status indicators, health policy indicators, and demographic data.
Status indicators: The Report Card examines 34 status indicators. Each state is given a total grade and overall rank based on the 27 indicators for which appropriate benchmarks and state data were available. For each of these status indicators on the state report cards, every state is ranked against the other 50 states (for the purposes of the Report Card, the District of Columbia is included as a state, although it does not constitutionally hold that status) and given a grade. The 27 status indicators are graded based on overall benchmarks that were drawn from the health objectives set for the nation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 agenda and other appropriate benchmarks. Because most benchmarks reflect desirable progress rather than measures of where women’s health should ultimately be, the Report Card sets “Satisfactory” (“S”) as the highest grade a state may receive. States not meeting the benchmark receive a “Satisfactory Minus” (“S-”), “Unsatisfactory” (“U”), or “Fail” (“F”) based on scores that reflect how far states are from the benchmarks, as explained in the Methodology section. Data for women by race, ethnicity, and age are also provided when available.
The nation is graded on the same indicators, using the same benchmarks. The grades are based on the data available for women across the states, as explained in the Methodology section.
Policy indicators: To evaluate the performance of state governments in promoting women’s health, the Report Card examines 63 policy indicators, which are based on statutes, regulations, policies, and programs that address the problems identified by the health status indicators. The policies are evaluated on the basis of the strength of the requirements and are compared but not graded. For all the policy indicators, the strength of each state’s policy is categorized as “Meets Policy,” “Limited Policy,” “Weak Policy,” or “No/Harmful Policy.” The Report Card authors determined the categorizations for each of the policies after research and input from experts. Some policies have all four categories, while others have only three or two categories, based on expert recommendations. Each state’s performance in the 2007 Report Card is compared to its performance in the 2004 Report Card, except where noted.
Demographic data: The demographic data present a “snapshot” of the population of women in each state and the nation overall and provide the context for the Report Card status and policy indicators. The information is included for each state and the nation as a whole.