CDC PLACES MCP Server

CDC PLACES

CDC PLACES provides chronic disease prevalence estimates at county, place, census tract, and ZCTA levels. 36 health measures including diabetes, obesity, asthma, heart disease, smoking, physical inactivity, sleep deprivation, and health insurance coverage. Data from BRFSS surveys + small area estimation. Socrata SODA API with $where, $select, $limit, $offset, $order parameters. Dataset IDs: swc5-untb (county), cwsq-ngmh (place), 373s-ayzu (census tract).

Data Model

• Measures — 36 chronic disease indicators: DIABETES, OBESITY, CSMOKING, BPHIGH, CHD, STROKE, COPD, CASTHMA, ARTHRITIS, KIDNEY, DEPRESSION, CHECKUP, DENTAL, SLEEP, LPA, BINGE, ACCESS2.
• Data values — prevalence as percentage (e.g. 12.5%), with confidence intervals (low/high).
• Geography — county (FIPS), place (census-designated), census tract, ZCTA (ZIP code tabulation area).
• Year — data release year (model-based estimates, not real-time).

Query Syntax (Socrata SODA)

• $where — SQL-like filter (e.g. stateabbr='CA' AND measure='DIABETES').
• $select — choose columns (e.g. locationname,data_value,measure).
• $limit — max rows (default 1000, max 50000).
• $offset — pagination offset.
• $order — sort expression (e.g. data_value DESC).

Gotchas

• No auth: Public Socrata API, no key needed (but app tokens increase rate limits).
• Dataset IDs differ by geography level: county=swc5-untb, place=cwsq-ngmh, tract=373s-ayzu.
• Default limit: 1000 rows; explicitly set $limit for larger result sets.
• Measure names: Use uppercase short codes (DIABETES, OBESITY, not full descriptions).