Overview
For more than 15 years, The Children’s Initiative has produced a Live Well San Diego Report Card on Children, Families, and Community that measured 25 child and youth health and well-being indicators – ranging from before birth (Early Prenatal Care) to Child Mortality. Transitioning to a more advanced platform, the Live Well San Diego Children & Families Data Hub (formerly known as the Live Well San Diego Report Card on Children, Families, and Community) now offers a robust web-based data platform. This tool enables community members, stakeholders, and government entities to analyze data to pinpoint both strengths and areas of improvement in child, youth, and family health and well-being.
The Children’s Initiative engages a diverse array of stakeholders, including subject matter and data experts specializing in juvenile justice, education, and health, alongside government executives, community-based organizations, parents, and youth. Guiding the development of this new Data Hub is a robust and influential Leadership Advisory Oversight Committee comprising national experts and local leaders in health, education, childcare, child welfare, juvenile justice, and injury and violence prevention. Furthermore, research and analysis are overseen by the Scientific Advisory Review Committee, which includes statisticians, epidemiologists, and program-data managers from these fields, ensuring the validity, reliability, and quality of all indicator data utilized.
Selection of Indicators
The Live Well San Diego Children & Families Data Hub aligns with the Live Well San Diego vision and measures health, safety, and thriving across the life-span. Based on the results-based accountability (RBA) model and a “turn-the-curve” approach developed by Mark Friedman, this model uses a data-driven, decision-making process to help communities move beyond talking about problems to a focus on results and toward action to solve problems. The RBA model was utilized to select indicators that reflect some of the most important aspects of the lives of children and families for which reliable data are available. Each indicator was selected to meet specific criteria: Are the data reliable and consistent? (data power); Does the indicator communicate to diverse audiences (e.g., families, communities, policy makers)? (communication power); Does the indicator say something of importance about the desired outcome? (proxy power).
The advisory committees specifically selected the indicators in this report to have strong data and communication power, and to reflect broadly on a given topic. While the total group of indicators reflects a broad array of concerns, they do not represent all the factors that are important to families and communities.
Understanding the Data
For each indicator, graphs are generated to illustrate trends over time, utilizing up to ten years of available data. No formal statistical tests have been conducted to ascertain the significance of these changes. Our assessment considers the overall direction of the trend, starting and ending points, and recent shifts. It’s important to note that a one-year fluctuation in a specific rate could stem from temporary environmental changes, alterations in data sampling, small sample sizes, or other external influences, and may not signify a true change in trend direction.
The most recent data available are utilized for this website. While most graphs employ calendar years to track trends, some reflect school years. Where feasible, comparative data are presented to facilitate understanding of how our county compares to California. Data are presented in percentages and rates, aligned with the norms and standards of each specific data source. Percentages are employed when applicable for clarity in comparisons, whereas rates per 1,000, 10,000, or 100,000 people are used when incidence rates are low. Most graphs are scaled from 0–100, 0–50, or 0–25, tailored to the magnitude of the trend being analyzed. Occasionally, scales are adjusted to better visualize year-to-year variations.
Frequency of Data Updates
Depending on the availability of the data, data will be refreshed and updated annually within the calendar year.
Where to Find the Data Source?
Data sources are located within the Notes section on each Indicator page.