MAHSLIN Expert Searcher


Expert Searching: Statistics

Page created by Cara Helfner

Databases

  • AHRQ Medical Expendature Panel Survey (Available free online)
    MEPS collects data on the specific health services that Americans use, how frequently they use them, the cost of these services, and how they are paid for, as well as data on the cost, scope, and breadth of private health insurance held by and available to the U.S. population. A database of chartbooks, statistical briefs and reports covers data between 1987 and 1996.

  • CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (Available free online)
    BRFSS collects state-level prevalence data on the major behavioral risks among adults associated with premature morbidity and mortality. Searchable prevalence and trends data are available nationally and by state on topics like asthma, diabetes and weight control between 1995 and 2002.

  • CDC Data 2010 (Available free online)
    Searchable data are available nationally and by state from 95 databases between 1998 and 2003, including the Food Safety Survey and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

  • CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Available free online)
    NHANES collects data on risk factors and prevalance of chronic conditions, such as anemia, kidney disease and hearing loss. Included are data briefs, tables and charts, HealthE stats from Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports and Advance Data between 1999 and 2004.

  • CDC Wonder (Available free online)
    WONDER provides a single point of access to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data with an A-Z index of 52 datasets, such as the Vaccinne Adverse Event Reporting System and the National Agriculture Safety Database, spanning data from the 1970's to current.

  • Center for Studying Health System Change Community Tracking Survey (Available free online)
    CTS conducts a nationally representative survey of United States families and individuals, and another of physicians. CTS Online constructs interactive data tables from user queries on topics such as quality of care, physician career satisfaction and patient trust and satisfaction for the years 1996-2001.

  • Emergency Room (ER) (Dialog File 4 54)
    Provides the top drugs prescribed, diagnostics given, providers seen, visit characteristics, payment source and more for over 2,600 diseases. Data included is derived from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2001. The cost per dial unit is $12.05 and cost per minute is $2.33, with scaled costs for printing.

  • Hospital Inpatient Profile (HIP) (Dialog File 462)
    HIP provides the top six related diseases and procedures, payment source, discharge status and more for over 7,100 diseases and procedures. The database constains over 6,500 records and is updated annually. Data included in HIP is derived from the National Hospital Discharge Survey from 2001. The cost per dial unit is $12.05 and cost per minute is $2.33, with scaled costs for printing.

  • Hospital Outpatient Profile (HOP) (Dialog File 463)
    HOP provides the top drugs prescribed, diagnostics given, providers seen, visit characteristics, payment source, disposition and more for over 2,400 diseases. Data included in the HOP database is derived from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2001, contains over 2,500 records, and is updated annually. The cost per dial unit is $12.05 and cost per minute is $2.33, with scaled costs for printing.

  • Incidence and Prevalence (Dialog File 465)
    The IPD provides incidence and prevalence data for more than 4,000 diagnoses and procedures from 1994+ and is updated quarterly. It covers over 4,500 diagnoses and procedures, providing data on epidemiology, census results, cost analysis, and concomitant diseases. It indexes reports, government documents, journal articles, statistics and research projects. The cost per dial unit is $12.05 and cost per minute is $2.33, with scaled costs for printing.

  • NCHS Data Warehouse (Available free online)
    The Data Warehouse includes tabulated and micro-data from the National Center for Health Statistics between 1996-2003 available from a single portal. International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification and Federal Electronic Research and Extraction Tool (FERRETT) are some of the options available for searching.

  • NCHS FastStats (Available free online)
    An A-Z index of national, state and territorial data on over 150 topics, such as prenatal care, stroke and alcohol use. Reports show morbidity, mortality and health care use from 1990+.

  • NCHS Health United States (Available free online)
    Health, United States is an annual report on national trends in health statistics. Reports from 1972-2003 include Chartbooks on Adolescent Health, Women's Health and other topics.

  • NIH Combined Health Information Database (Available free online)
    CHID is a bibliographic database produced by health-related agencies of the Federal Government. This database provides titles, abstracts, and availability information for health information and health education resources. CHID is updated four times a year and contains 12 topics, including Alzheimer's Disease, Digestive Diseases and Oral Health.

  • Statistical Universe (Lexis-Nexis)
    over 30,000 individually indexed statistical tables, an optional module of over 100,000 additional indexed tables, including American Statistics Index (ASI), Statistical Reference Index (SRI), and Index to International Statistics (IIS). Statistics covered are from the U.S. government, major international intergovernmental organizations, professional and trade organizations, commercial publishers, independent research organizations, state government agencies, and universities. LexisNexis Statistical Base Edition has a minimum billable FTE of 1,500 and a maximum of 34,000, with prices ranging from about $1,500-$11,000 annually for the basic module, depending on library type and usage.

  • US Census Bureau Statistical Abstract of the United States (Available free online)
    PDF documents for 1995-2003 cover data on topics including vital statistics, health, nutrition, social insurance and human services.

  • Urban Institute National Survey of America's Families (Available free with online registration)
    The National Survey of America's Families provides data on the well-being of children and non-elderly adults in 13 states on topics including use of health services, health status, psychological well-being, knowledge about availability of social services, health care, and childbearing. Public Use Files are available for 1997-1999.

  • World Health Organization Core Health Indicators (Available free online)
    The World Health Report from the WHO Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) on 192 countries between 1997-2002 is available as an interactive tool to construct data tables on mortality, life expectancy, government expendatures on health, and additional topics.

    Search Strategies/Tips

    Use Medline subheadings: epidemiology (ep), statistics & numerical data (sn), mortality (mo), manpower (ma), utilization (ut), supply & distribution (sd), and trends (td).

    In OVID, map terms to subject headings: statistics, statistics, nonparametric, vital statistics, morbidity, epidemiology and mortality.

    Webpages strong in searching this subject

  • Cornell University Medical Library
  • Duke University Medical Center Library
  • Massachusetts Health Data Consortium Data Locator
  • NLM Finding and Using Health Statistics: A Self-Study Course
  • University of Michigan Statistical Resources on the Web - Health
  • University of Minnesota Bio-Medical Library

    Journal articles about searching in this specialty

  • Littleton, D.M. and Kathryn Robbins. "Health-Related Statistical Information on the Net" In Health Care Resources on the Internet: A Guide for Librarians
    and Health Care Consumers. Birminhamton, NY: Haworth Information Press, 2000, pp149-167.
  • Start, N.E. "Health Statistics Sources on the Internet." Medical Reference Services Quarterly 16(Spring 1997):1-14.

    Subject specialists/librarians who will offer search assistance to other librarians

  • Cara Helfner, Program Manager, Kessler Health Education Library, Brigham and Women's Hospital
    75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115
    Phone: 616-732-8103
  • Lydia Ewing, Manager, Resource Center & Web Content, Massachusetts Health Data Consortium
    460 Totten Pond Road, Waltham, MA 02451
    Phone: 781-768-25023