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Calculate ratios to US and State average for each indicator in each place

Usage

calc_ratio_columns(
  mytable,
  varnames = names_these,
  varnames_avg = paste0("avg.", varnames),
  varnames_state_avg = paste0("state.avg.", varnames),
  varnames_ratio_to_avg = paste0("ratio.to.", varnames_avg),
  varnames_ratio_to_state_avg = paste0("ratio.to.", varnames_state_avg),
  varnames_state_special = c("Demog.Index.State", "Demog.Index.Supp.State")
)

Arguments

mytable

table in data.table format with 1 row per place, 1 column per raw data indicator values

varnames

column names of mytable that contain the raw indicator values (numerators of ratios)

varnames_avg

column names of mytable that contain the US averages (denominators of ratios to US avg)

varnames_state_avg

column names of mytable that contain the State averages (denominators of ratios to State avg)

varnames_ratio_to_avg

optional names to use for the calculated ratios to US avg

varnames_ratio_to_state_avg

optional names to use for the calculated ratios to State avg

varnames_state_special

handles special case of ratio to state avg for Demog.Index and Demog.Index.Supp needing special numerator that is state-specific version of the index

Value

data.frame with 1 row per row of mytable and set of columns for US ratios and set of columns for State ratios

Details

For examples, see calc_pctile_columns()

Note how averages (or percentiles) are defined in EJSCREEN data – technically it has been defined as average blockgroup (or percentile across blockgroups) in US or State, not average resident in US or State, but those are in most cases almost the same. Average resident and average blockgroup can be very different for a single analyzed site, however, or for the overall aggregate of several analyzed sites, and in those situations EJSCREEN calculates the average local resident's blockgroup score, not the average blockgroup score. In reporting ratios, those local average resident's values are still compared to the US or State "average" that is the average blockgroup in the US or State, so technically they are not exactly comparable, but in practice the ratio would be almost the same if compared to a population weighted average of all US blockgroups (i.e., the average US resident).