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Headings: !!!!*National Information* !!!!*International Information*

UNDER CONSTRUCTION 7/28/06

Health and medicine make up a topic of long-standing interest to social scientists. Patterns and sources of inequalities in health status by socioeconomic status, race and other factors are receiving increased attention, as are the intricacies of health insurance, doctor-patient interactions, and other topics related to medicine. Here we list useful general national and international resources for those who are interested in incorporating health-related data into their courses.

National Information ^

• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The CDC conducts research on health and conducts interventions aimed at disease prevention and healthy living. The website provides many potentially useful resources for classes, including:
  • An A-Z index providing detailed information about specific health and health-related conditions, as well as links to other sources of information and data. See, for example, the page on alcohol statistics.
  • The Health Data for All Ages database contains interactive tables for health and health-care related topics, by race, sex and georgraphy. See, for example, the table on health insurance coverage among U.S. adults, by state. Users can rearrange the tables to display statistics in a way that is suitable for their interests.
    • The tables can also be viewed as graphs by clicking on "View as Chart" in the table window.
  • The Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System is the world's largest telephone survey, and collects health-related information from people in the United States. The website contains several interactive databases, including:
    • Prevalence Data, where students can get data at the national or state level for a particular topic. See, for example, tables and graphs on 2005 adult immunization rates in California.
    • The SMART Database permits comparisons between metropolitan area and national levels of particular health problems, including smoking and obesity. See, for example, trends for the LA metro area, as compared to the rest of California and to the nation.
    • The BRFSS Maps system allows students to produce GIS maps showing the distribution of a health problem, such as asthma. Maps can be displayed at the national, state or local level.

• The National Center for Health Statistics is the national health statistics agency for the United States. It exists within the CDC and provides data on a variety of topics related to health status and health care. Potentially useful resources for the classroom include:
  • "Fast Stats A-Z", a list of basic statistics on topics related to the public's health. Each topical link includes links to publications and relevant data. See, for example, the information on unmarried childbearing.
  • The NCHS sponsors a number of surveys and data collections efforts, many of which provide easily accessible data on U.S. trends in disability, health behaviors and health status.
    • The National Health Interview Survey, for example, provides summary reports, including this one on access to health care among Hispanic women. Those wishing to use the actual data files for teaching purposes can also access the data files from each survey's website. See the NHIS data file, for example.

• The Guttmacher Institue is a nonprofit research, educational and policy organization focusing on sexual and reproductive health, both in the U.S. and globally. The organization's website provides content broken down by topic. Each section provides links to fact sheets, relevant articles and topical statistics. See the section on adolescents, for example. The statistics link in this section provides, among other information, information on teenage pregnancy in the U.S., broken down by race and geographic location.

International Information ^

• The World Health Organization is the United Nations health agency. The organization focuses on health and human rights, mental health and food safety around the world. The organization provides access to many research-related resources, including:
  • Data on health-related information.
    • See, for example, the WHO Mortality Database, which contains raw data files (not user friendly) and more accessible premade tables that can be used to calculate death rates and to explore causes of death.
    • Also see the WHO Global Atlas of the Health Workforce. By clicking on the data query link, users can obtain data about the composition of the health workforce (i.e., the number of doctors, nurses, dentists, etc.). This can be done for a large area (the whole UN world) or broken down by continent, region or country. Users can also create interactive maps about these same topics in a user-friendly framework.
  • Geographic Information Tools for mapping health-related data. See, for example, the Global Health Atlas, with links to a user-friendly interactive mapping tool that can be used to map diseases, the location of schools, etc. The Global Health Atlas also has links to ready-made maps on these same topics, that can be broken down by region and specific topic.
  • A multimedia center with photo, video, audio and Flash animation files that can be used to lean about a particular health-related topic or about WHO sponsored events.

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