Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of lung diseases that makes it difficult to breathe.
Other names for COPD include emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
For more information, visit MN Public Health Data Access: COPD.
Data Notes
- The counts are not whole numbers due to how we determined county. To calculate the number
of counts per county, we used zip codes to figure out which county each case belongs to. Some zip codes in Minnesota
cross county boundaries, so a weighted method is used to split cases. For example, in the zip code 56318 60% of people
live in Todd County and 40% live in Morrison County. So a hospitalization or ED visit with this zip code would add 0.6
count to Todd County and 0.4 to Morrison County. This ensures each county is represented as accurately as possible given
we only have zip code information.
- Rates are age-adjusted among persons 25 years and older per 10,000 population.
- Data are aggregated over multiple years to allow visualization of more county or
ZIP Code data than viewing data in one-year segments would allow.
- County and ZIP Code population data are from the American Community Survey.
- To protect privacy, COPD hospitalization counts of 5 or less are “suppressed” if the underlying population is less
than 100,000 people. Geographies with suppressed data are displayed as white on the map, indicated by two asterisks (**) in the table and pop-up
window, and identified as “data not shown.”
- Age-adjusted rates based on counts between 6 and 20 or with relative standard error greater than or equal to 30% should
be interpreted with caution – the rate may not be reliable because it can change dramatically with the addition or subtraction of a single case.
Geographies considered to have an “unstable rate” are indicated by a single asterisk (*) in the table and pop-up window.
- These data include Minnesota residents discharged from hospitals in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.
However, Minnesota residents who sought care at Wisconsin hospitals are not included, so rates for counties bordering Wisconsin may be underestimated.
- These data do not include hospitalizations from Veterans Affairs or Indian Health Service hospitals.
- For additional information pertaining to the data, please visit the
"About the COPD Data" page.
Data Sources
- US Census Bureau
- American Community Survey
- Minnesota Hospital Association