Redundancy among indicators in the mental health demographic profile system

This paper explores the extent of redundancy among the small area indicators of the 1970 Mental Health Demographic Profile System (MHDPS). Redundancy is equated with interindicator Pearson correlations equal to or greater than 0.80 for the census tracts within six metropolitan counties. The analysis was undertaken because the assertion had been made that the association among indicators was high, particularly within major social area dimensions, and consequently, a few indicators could be used to provide the information contained in the system. The analysis failed to support this thesis. The paper concludes by making a case for a judgmental selection of items and briefly reviewing the 1980 MHDPS.