IHME research produced estimates for age-standardized mortality rates by county from lower respiratory infections (LRIs), diarrheal diseases, HIV/AIDS, meningitis, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. The estimates were generated using de-identified death records from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS); population counts from the U.S. Census Bureau, NCHS, and the Human Mortality Database; the cause list from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD); and the application of small area estimation models. This dataset provides estimates for age-standardized mortality rates by cause and sex at the county level for each state, the District of Columbia, and the United States as a whole for 1980-2014. Also included are changes in rates during this period and counties with the highest and lowest mortality rates for each cause in 2014. Study results were published in JAMA in March 2018 in "Trends and patterns of differences in infectious disease mortality among US counties, 1980–2014."
