Pew Research Center: Most journalists are aware of Pew Research Center, but they may not be aware of how much the site has to offer health journalism. On the center’s data page, anyone can download their complete datasets, divided into seven categories: U.S. Politics & Policy,Journalism & Media, Internet, Science & Tech, Religion & Public Life, Hispanic Trends, Global Attitudes & Trends and Social & Demographic Trends. Each of these areas contain information on public attitudes that could be ripe for story ideas or for providing context in a story, such as how people view the CDC, attitudes toward a wide range of health topics, a survey on aging, Latino attitudes, environmental concerns in China, polls about the Sandwich Generation and a survey of LGBT Americans, among many others. They also provide a post walking visitors through how to download the data.
Reproductive, Maternal and Child Statistics: The best resource for any data related to reproductive health or maternal/neonatal health is the CDC page on Reproductive Health Data and Statistics. Although a wide range of resources are available on the page, a couple to highlight include PRAMStata, which includes a database searchable by state or topic for more than 250 child and maternal health indicators tracked in the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). Everything from prenatal care statistics to smoking in pregnancy to breastfeeding stats and more is available here. The CDC explains its surveillance of pregnancy mortality here, and data on sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) are available here. The March of Dimes also offers a variety of data on perinatal statistics. Other resources for data on the CDC page include links for contraception, abortion, assisted reproductive technology, sexually transmitted infectionsand birth data, among others.
FastStats comes from the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC. Frequently updated and easy to use, this page is an invaluable resource for reporters who need statistics for context in a flash.
Need to know how many knee replacements were performed in the U.S. this year? How about hysterectomies? Want to know how trends in procedures have changed over time? Then you need the Center for Disease Control’s National Hospital Discharge Survey. Be aware, though, the CDC is integrating that survey into a larger dataset that will include procedures from the emergency department and ambulatory care centers. The new National Hospital Care Survey doesn’t have results yet, but when they’re posted, they’ll be here.