Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded its 500 Cities Project, a 2016 initiative to provide city- and neighborhood-level health estimates for a large portion of the nation’s population. The project is being renamed PLACES, and provides Population Level Analysis and Community Estimates to the entire United States to show the prevalence of chronic diseases and the health impacts on underserved communities. PLACES provides data estimates for 27 health measures for four U.S. geographic levels: counties, incorporated and census-designated places, census tracts, and ZIP codes. The chronic disease measures focus on health outcomes, unhealthy behaviors, and prevention practices that have a substantial impact on people’s health. The CDC says PLACES can be used to:
- Inform target prevention activities, programs, and policies;
- Identify emerging health problems and priority health risk behaviors;
- Identify and understand geographic health-related issues;
- Establish key health goals; and
- Identify geographic disparities in health among and within communities to inform strategies that address health equity.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine’s National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) maintains comparative effectiveness research database and epic list of resources on comparative effectiveness research. As detailed in its Glossary entry, this type of research takes results from clinical trials as a starting point for seeing what outcomes really look like in the chaotic wilds of human healthcare.
OECD Health at a Glance: The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s Health at a Glance offers a quick look at how health and health care stacks up in the United States and a host of other countries. It looks at health spending alcohol use, smoking rates, obesity and life expectancy over the years. It also looks at access to care and risk factors, among other key issues. The customizable database also lets journalists look at and compare various factors and geographies.
Atlas of Rural and Small Town America: County-level data for population change overall and by demographic group, includes 60 socioeconomic indicators; ongoing updates.
CDC’s WONDER database: The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains this comprehensive database on a wide range of public health information. WONDER, which stand for Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research, offers data on a range of topics, from Childhood Lead Poisoning and Asthma and Allergies to MATCH County Health Rankings and Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data. It can also be used to compile data on for various geographic areas, and can be used to look up information on particular subgroups such as by race or gender. The data is downloadable and can be saved as a map and/or a chart.
CDC’s Behavioral Risk Data: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been collecting data on health behavior since 1983. Considered “gold standard of behavioral surveillance,” its Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) tracks nearly 20 areas, including alcohol and tobacco use, colorectal cancer screening, immunization, prostate cancer and women’s health issues. It also looks at fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity levels and obesity/overweight. Users can also look up demographics, health status and chronic health indicators. It offers data for all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C. and the U.S. territories. The data is collected by monthly land and mobile telephone surveys, although the CDC has several projects underway looking at other methods.
Gallup: Well-Being: Polling and analytics company Gallup Inc. offers a glimpse into both U.S. and global wellbeing through its surveys. Its polls intersect health, social issues and business to give journalists data on everything from millennials seeking jobs that boost their wellbeing and on-the-job-satisfaction to standard-of-living, smoking, eating and stress. Gallup’s surveys also look as specific demographics; in additional to millennials, recent polls have also looked at women and the uninsured. It also makes its polling experts available for interviews to discuss the data. (Media contact: communications@gallup.com)
Health Inequality Project: This comprehensive study examines 15 years of data on U.S. life expectancy. Published in 2016 in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the findings analyze the nation’s mortality rates by gender, age and year as well as by household income percentile. Researchers at Stanford, MIT and Harvard also pulled city- and county-level data, ranking it by overall life expectancy and by level of change. The site also allows reporters to download their figures and use them with attribution. The 12-member team’s research is funded by Stanford, the Social Security Administration National Institutes of Health, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. Media contact: media@healthinequality.org.
National Healthcare Quality & Disparities Reports: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) takes an annual look at quality and disparity issues across the United States. Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AHRQ reports each year on related trends in patient care, including “access to care based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and residential location.” The reports also offer a wide range of charts related to its findings.
Childhood Lead Poisoning Data, Statistics, and Surveillance: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information on lead levels in children since April 1995 and offers two related databases, one for state level data and another for counties. Annual lead exposure data is gathered from blood lead tests from the 35 state and local health departments that the CDC funds to gather lead surveillance and included the highest lead level found. Any other data from states that are not funded is voluntary.
World Bank: Health Equity Data by Wealth: The World Bank offers this database on issues affecting health equality that allows users to search and analyze data on more than 70 health indicators across nearly 250 countries, including the United States and Canada. Searchable topics include “problems in accessing health care” to a variety of family planning and reproductive issues. The available data include vaccinations, infant mortality, smoking, diarrhea and respiratory infections, among other factors. Results are broken down by wealth. Users can search data for recent years or, to make comparisons, go back as far as 1990 to spot trends.
Census annual report on poverty, income and the uninsured (2014): The U.S. Census Bureau releases annual statistics on U.S. poverty – considered the nation’s official poverty rate – as well as median income. The report, which covers the previous calendar year, also includes the number of people in the United States who do not have health insurance. The 2015 data will be released on Sept. 13, 2016.
Rural Health Research Gateway: Funded by HRSA‘s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the Rural Health Research Gateway provides information on new studies as well as ongoing projects. It also included a list of rural health research centers as well as relevant researchers. The site is hosted by the University of North Dakota Center for Rural Health.
WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) generates customized reports of injury-related data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mapping module draws on seven years of data, the amount needed to produce reliable county-level injury-related death rates, according to the CDC, and it is a powerful tool to explore health disparities.
County Health Rankings: New data for 2015. The data sources and years for each measure are listed on page 10 of the Key Findings report. This collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a rich source of data about health at the local level and who is doing what to improve it. Information can be segmented by behavior, clinical care, socioeconomics, and physical environments – showing how and where people live, work, and receive care. Track the grantees for story ideas, and dive into data through several links on the site (particularly on this page). Then go even deeper with the data drill-down guide. The site looks at national and local trends regarding mortality and premature death, health related quality of life, as well as factors such as air pollution, smoking rates, obesity and teen births.
RWJF Data Hub allows you to compare and visualize state-level data on social determinants of health, health inquality, costs, insurance status and more, maintained by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The Equality Trust is a compendium of data on income inequality in relation to health, welfare & social cohesion in Great Britain. (The trust was founded by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.)
MetroTrends : The Urban Institute provides up-to-date interactive maps, downloadable datasets, and expert commentaries on conditions and trends in U.S. metropolitan regions. The database includes numbers on crime, unemployment, house affordability, earnings and material hardship, immigration and diversity, child well-being, and more. It’s supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation.
Health System Data Center allows you to compare state and local health system performance using a search function or mapping tool. You can create and export custom bar charts and tables. It’s supported by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation with a mission “to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.”
Pew Research Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Reports have examined the racial wealth gap, the rising cost of not going to colllege, and the rise of stay at home mothers. Pew Research does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.