The HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) is a repository of information on our nation’s health. They compute an Unmet Need Score (UNS) to identify medically under-served regions in the U.S. It is a composite of 28 health statistics at the zip code level. The score ranges from 0 to 100. Zip codes are classified as high need areas if they have a score of 75 or more and it has a population of at least 1,500. I was able to download the data sets for the 121 zip-codes for Cambria and Somerset counties. The map above shows all of the zip codes for Cambria and Somerset Counties.
| ZIP Code | Municipality | ZCTA UNS | Population Size | Below 200% Federal Poverty Level | |||||
| High-Need Area | No | 1 | 15542 | Garrett | 75.1 | 1060 | 43% | ||
| 2 | 15552 | Meyersdale | 75.6 | 5881 | 35% | ||||
| 3 | 15760 | Marsteller | 78.6 | 133 | 63% | ||||
| 4 | 16675 | St. Boniface | 75.1 | 84 | 37% | ||||
| Yes | 1 | 15901 | Johnstown | 97.4 | 3483 | 60% | |||
| 2 | 15902 | Johnstown | 85.1 | 11434 | 47% | ||||
| 3 | 15906 | Johnstown | 87.9 | 10103 | 54% | ||||
In Cambria County, the Johnstown zip codes of 15901, 15902, 15906 were classified as high need areas. The table below shows all of the zip-codes with a UNS higher than 75 in the 2 counties. I’m not sure why Meyersdale was not classified as a High Need area.
Poverty and the Unmet Need Score (UNS)
Above is a graph showing the correlation between the UNS and the % of the zip-code below 200% of the federal poverty level. This is a fairly strong positive correlation accounting for 46.7% of the variability in the data. The regression equation states that for every increase in the UNS by 10, there is a predicted increase in the poverty level by 6%.
There is an outlier in the 15953 zip-code. It has 100% of their population within 200% of the poverty level and a UNS of 56.3. This zip-code is in the town of Seanor in Somerset County. It is near Hollsopple, Pa with a population of 77.
There are other correlations that will be discussed in future posts.
**Update**
It was pointed out to me that the 15901, 15907 and 15915 zip codes have the same populations. Looking at the HRSA map these three zip codes appear to cover the same area. I reran the analysis with the 15907 and 15915 zip codes excluded.
With these 2 zips excluded, the % of variance explained decreased from 46.7% to 42.5%. The regression equation changed minimally.