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Public Health Research Guide: Resources for Public Health Educators

An introduction to resources that will assist in Public Health research.

Health Statistics - National Library of Medicine

  • Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC): Data & Statistics - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides information on the variables of major interest to the BCSC, such as demographic data and health history of women who come to participating radiology facilities for mammograms. Also provided are statistics that provide an overview of the data collected.
  • Cancer statistics - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides cancer statistics on incidence and survival data from 14 population-based cancer registries and three supplemental registries covering approximately 26 percent of the US population.
  • CMS:Data and Systems - (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS))  - Link to the CMS webpage with hyperlinks to CMS data and systems, files for order, statistics, trends, and reports, research, and monitoring programs.
  • County Health Rankings - (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), University of Wisconsin)  - Provides county-by-county health rankings in each of the 50 states, explanations of each health factor, and actionable strategies to improve the health of communities across the nation.
  • Data Briefs - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Data Briefs are statistical publications that provide information about current public health topics in a straightforward format. Each report takes a complex data subject and summarizes it into text and graphics that provide readers with easily comprehensible information in a compact publication.
  • Early Releases - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) Early Release Program provides very timely estimates of key health and health-related indicators.
  • Emergency Department Visitors and Visits - Who Used the ER in 2007? icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Report released in May 2010. Key findings include Older adults (aged 75 and over), non-Hispanic black persons, poor persons, and persons with Medicaid coverage were more likely to have had at least one emergency department (ED) visit in a 12-month period than those in other age, race, income, and insurance groups.
  • FASTATS A-Z - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The FastStats site provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.
  • Green Book, 2004 - (U.S. House of Representatives)  - The House Ways and Means Committee Green Book, WMCP:108-6, provides program descriptions and historical data on a wide variety of social and economic topics, including Social Security, employment, earnings, welfare, child support, health insurance, the elderly, families with children, poverty and taxation. Links to past Green Books can be found here as well.
  • Health Data Interactive - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Tables with national health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Tables can be customized by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location to explore different trends and patterns.
  • Health Indicators 2009 - (Canadian Institute for Health Information)  - Tenth in a series of annual reports containing the most recently available health indicators data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada. Presents national trends over time for selected indicators focusing on the following six themes: heart attacks and cardiac revascularization; stroke; women's health and men's health-selected surgical procedures; hip fractures; joint replacements; and preventing hospital admissions. Download PDF version.
  • Health, United States - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Annual report on trends in health statistics. The report consists of a chartbook that illustrates major trends in the health of Americans, and a trend tables section of detailed data tables. Refer to Appendix I for data sources.
  • Health, United States, 2009 with Special Feature on Medical Technology icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics from data gathered by state and federal health agencies and through ongoing national surveys. Features a special section on medical technology, and finds that the rate of magnetic resonance imaging, known as MRI, and computed and positron emission tomography or CT/PET scans, ordered or provided, tripled between 1996 and 2007.
  • National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) - (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))  - The Nation's principal health statistics agency. Looks at outcomes, access, literature synthesis, public reporting, underserved, quality, data collection methods, etc. Access data, reports, surveys, and tools.
  • NCI Cancer Mortality Maps & Graphs - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - Provides interactive maps, graphs (accessible to the blind and visually-impaired), text, tables and figures showing geographic patterns and time trends of cancer death rates for the time period 1950-1994 for more than 40 cancers
  • Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS), National Institute on Aging (NIA))  - provides an updated, accessible compendium of indicators, drawn from the most reliable official statistics about the well-being of Americans primarily age 65 and older. The indicators are categorized into five broad areas-population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. The 155-page report contains data on 37 key indicators.
  • Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS) - (National Cancer Institute, NIH (NCI))  - PCOS is the first population-based evaluation of health-related quality-of-life issues for prostate cancer patients conducted on a multi-regional scale. Information about the patient population, data collection, and related research projects and publications is included.
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Statistics - (Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA))  - The latest national data on alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug use and dependence, and State treatment planning areas. Also included are data on mental health topics including depression, serious psychological distress, and suicidal thoughts and attempts.
  • Trends and Characteristics of Home and Other Out-of-Hospital Births in the United States, 1990 2006 icon - (National Center for Health Statistics, CDC (NCHS))  - Examines trends of home and other out-of-hospital births.