Summary
Neighborhood indices are used daily by federal and state programs, public health researchers, practitioners, and advocates as tools to advance health equity. With a growing interest in neighborhood and racial/ethnic equity from policy and health leaders, we expect—and hope—that these uses will continue to grow. In our Health Affairs Forefront blog, we provide a framework for improving index infrastructure. If neighborhood metrics are to progress as tools for equity-focused research and decision making in health care and other sectors, they need to be continually maintained, refined, updated and validated.
