Health

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Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)
Formerly known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), this agency was reauthorized and renamed through the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999. A "Data and Surveys" section contains links to:

• Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP and HCUPNet)
• HIVNet
• Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
• HIV and AIDS Costs and Use
• Healthcare Informatics Standards

AgeSource/AgeStats Worldwide (AARP International)

AARP International has created a pair of annotated databases, AgeSource and AgeStats, to identify and link to aging-related information online. AgeSource covers "clearinghouses, databases, libraries, directories, bibliographies and reading lists, texts and reports, national statistical resources, training materials, and Web 'metasites' focused on aging or closely allied subjects." AgeStats focuses on statistics comparing the situation of older adults between countries and regions. Users can keyword-search the annotations and also limit the search by type of resource (e.g. statistical resource) and geographic area.

The AARP International site also features "country profiles" and a "comparative data search" tool that can be found under the "Aging Everywhere" menu option. A "country profile" consists of a table of quick aging-related stats such as life expectancy, statutory retirement age, and total health care expenditures per capita. The comparative data search tool allows the user to select regions or countries and variables. The most current numbers are shown in each case.

AgingStats.gov (Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics)
This site features a report called Older Americans: Key Indicators of Well-Being that covers key indicators selected to portray aspects of the lives of older Americans and their families. The report is divided into five subject areas: population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. Key indicators are also available in Excel spreadsheet format. Reports are available for 2000, 2004, and 2006.

AIDS Data Animation Project (CIESIN)
Using mortality data from the National Centers for Health Statistics, the AIDS Data Animation Project has created a web site which provides still frame and animated maps of regional United States AIDS mortality trends. The maps depict weekly AIDS mortality rates from 1981-1992. Documentation is available at the site as well. The still frame images are in GIF format; the animated maps require an MPEG viewer and may be quite slow to appear. File sizes are listed for each mapping.

Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) (Alan Guttmacher Institute)
This site has easy-to-read and understand statistics on teen sex and pregnancy; contraceptive use; induced abortion, as well as a special report on U.S. Teenage Pregnancy Statistics. A "custom table maker" program allows for customized displays of information.

Archive of Fertility and Health (Universidad de Costa Rica)
This site presents a compilation of surveys on fertility and health in Central America. The surveys contain information on the history of pregnancies, knowledge and use of contraceptives, marital information, maternal-infantile health, immunization, knowledge and use of the oral re-hydration, use of health services, and other related subjects. Recent surveys contain information on AIDS and child morbidity. The data files with their respective dictionaries are available for some of the surveys. For others, a form is available for ordering the data. Each data file has a data dictionary (extension .man), a file with the frequencies of each variable (extension .frq), and the data file itself in ASCII format (extension .dat). Text in English and Spanish.

Area Resource File (ARF) (Quality Resource Systems, Inc.)
“The Area Resource File (ARF) is a database containing over 6,000 variables for each county in the US. ARF is used for health service research, health policy analysis, and other geographically based activities.” The ARF data from 1940-1994, as well as the 1999 and 2005 releases, are available at DISC for UW-Madison campus users. The ARF website provides a search engine to identify which variables are available in the most recent annual release.

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (Centers for Disease Control (CDC))
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) established the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) in 1984 to track behavioral health risk in the United States. All 50 states were covered by 1994, and BRFSS is now billed as the world’s largest telephone survey. Behavior and risk categories include not getting enough physical activity, being overweight, not using seatbelts, using tobacco and alcohol, and not getting preventive care, among others. Annual survey data in ASCII and/or dBase format is available for download at the main BRFSS web site, back to 1990. A new section of the site now offers local area health risk data as well, through the SMART project (Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends). The SMART project covers 98 MMSAs, currently only for 2002, presenting PDF “quick view” charts or HTML tables.

California Department of Health Care Services: Data & Statistics (California Department of Health Care Services)
The California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) finances and administers a number of individual health care service delivery programs, including the California Medical Assistance Program (Medi-Cal). The Data & Statistics page links to data resources such as Indian Health Data and Medi-Cal Drug Utilization Data; results from the California Women's Health Survey; and County Health Statistics.

California Department of Public Health: Data & Statistics (California Department of Public Health)
The California Department of Public Health is California's center for vital statistics, health interview surveys, and data on disease, injury, and health indicators. Online query systems include Ask CHIS (California Health Interview Survey), EPICenter (California Injury Data), County and Statewide Archive of Tobacco Statistics, and Vital Statistics Query System (VSQS). Downloadable data tables include statistics on birth, breastfeeding, death, communicable disease, fetal death, and HIV/AIDS. The site also carries a section on GIS maps and interactive online mapping for California public health indicators.

California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) (UCLA Center for Health Policy Research)
The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is the largest state health survey conducted in the United States. The initial survey was held in 2001, and plans are in place for continuing the survey every two years. An interactive data query system called AskCHIS is available, with a free registration required.

Cancer Mortality Maps and Graphs (National Cancer Institute)
This site from the National Cancer Institute "provides interactive maps, graphs, 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." Mortality and geographic data is downloadable in both text and Excel format.

cancer.gov: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) (National Cancer Institute Institute of Health)
The SEER Program currently collects and publishes cancer incidence and survival data from 18 population-based cancer registries and three supplemental registries covering approximately 25 percent of the US population. Cancer mortality data, provided by the National Center for Health Statistics, is available for the entire US from 1950 onwards. SEER data includes patient demographics, primary tumor site, morphology, stage at diagnosis, first course of treatment, and follow-up. The site includes the Cancer Query System (CANQUES) as well as numerous reports, tables, and graphs based on the data in the SEER database. Direct access to the public use database requires the user to sign and submit a public-use agreement, outlined on the site.

Carolina Population Center (CPC) (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

The Carolina Population Center (CPC) is "a community of scholars and professionals collaborating on interdisciplinary research and methods that advance understanding of population issues." Research projects specialize in the following themes, both internationally and in the U.S.:

• Family, Fertility, and Children
• Population Diversity and Inequality
• Social and Spatial Contexts of Demographic and Health Behavior
• Economic, Demographic, and Health Transitions
• Population and Environment
• Health Behavior and Infectious Disease
• Demography and Economics of Aging

CPC projects include the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, the China Health and Nutrition Survey, the MEASURE Evaluation Project, the Nang Rong Projects, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Heatlh, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey.

CDC WONDER (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control)
CDC Wonder provides a gateway to a wide variety of reports and numeric public health data. Many of the links are to menu-based extraction systems that produce downloadable summary data tables. The gateway covers the following categories: chronic diseases, communicable diseases, environmental health, health practice and prevention, injury prevention, and occupational health. The site also has an A-to-Z topic index.

Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) (Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey (CLHNS) is an ongoing study of a cohort of Filipino women who gave birth between May of 1983 and 1984. The CLHNS is conducted by the Carolina Population Center at UNC, the Nutrition Center of the Philippines, and the Office of Population Studies, University of San Carlos. According to the Cebu site, "the CLHNS was originally conceptualized as a study of infant feeding patterns, particularly the overall sequencing of feeding events (i.e., of both milk and non-milk items), the various factors affecting feeding decisions at each point in time, and how different feeding patterns affect the infant, mother, and household… to analyze how infant feeding decisions by the household interact with various social, economic, and environmental factors to affect health, nutritional, demographic, and economic outcomes. During the period of project design from 1981 to 1983, the focus was expanded so that more issues related to selected health, demographic, and nutritional outcomes could be addressed." Follow-up studies were conducted in 1991, 1994, 1998, and 2002. The data and documentation are freely available online, together with a "descriptive statistics" tool that allows users to view means, frequencies, and two-way crosstabulations for the 1991 and 1994 data.

Center for Demography of Health and Aging (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
The Center for Demography of Health and Aging website offers downloads of WLS (Wisconsin Longitudinal Study) and NSFH (National Survey of Families and Households) data. Users can also browse an annotated list of resources regarding research in aging. The site also emphasizes its methods of secure data archiving.

Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) Data Core (The RAND Corporation)
The Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD) of the RAND Corporation has made available online a collection of public use datasets designed for analyzing disparities in cost-of-living, disability, pollution, population and housing characteristics, segregation, street connectivity, and neighborhood socioeconomic status in the United States. The datasets are derived from public-use data from the U.S. Census, the American Chamber of Commerce Research Association, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Most of the data covers the 1990-2000 time period. The data is available for various geographic summarization areas including census tract, county, and MSA, and has also been put into both 1990 and 2000 geographical definitions. Data formats include SAS, Stata, and CSV. Free registration is required, along with a description of the research and who else is collaborating on the project, and registrations are reviewed before access is granted.

Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) (Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC))
The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) is a non-partisan policy research organization in Washington, DC. The group chronicles trends in the U.S. health care system, primarily through the Community Tracking Survey (CTS), a national survey that focuses on the community level. The study consists of biennial visits to 12 communities and periodic national surveys of those involved in or affected by changes in the health system – households, physicians and employers – back to 1996/97. Data files are available at ICPSR, but the CTSOnline section of the HSC website allows users to create custom tables with data from the physician and household surveys. Tables can then be downloaded from HTML tables into Excel.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Research, Statistics, Data & Systems (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS))
The "Statistics, Trends and Reports" section of this page provides access to public use data files regarding Medicare and Medicaid, as well as tables, reports and chartbooks.

Child Trends Databank (www.childtrends.org)
The Child Trends Data Bank is a large site dedicated to providing information on a variety of issues affecting children in the U.S. The site is broken down into categories, including health, mental health, health-related behaviors, violence, drug and tobacco usage, and health care. There are various sub-categories available under the main categories. The site provides mainly statistics and tabulated data, but does offer links to raw data concerning most categories. There is also a keyword search.

Childinfo.org – Monitoring the Situation of Children and Women (United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF))
The ChildInfo site provides access to the statistical information made available by UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund. A menu of themes such as Child Survival and Health, Water and Sanitation, and Immunization, leads to reports on each indicator, with HTML tables (downloadable in Excel) covering the developing countries included in the initiative. ChildInfo also contains the full set of resources for the UNICEF-supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), a household survey program designed to help developing countries fill data gaps for monitoring the situation of women and children. The site contains PDF reports for countries from the first round of MICS (1995), and downloadable data (free registration required) for over 40 countries included in the second round (2000). A third round of MICS for 2005/2006 is currently in process.

China Health and Nutrition Survey (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center)
According to the web site, "The China Health and Nutrition Survey was designed to examine the effects of the health, nutrition, and family planning policies and programs implemented by national and local governments and to see how the social and economic transformation of Chinese society is affecting the health and nutritional status of its population." Data is available for five survey years: 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 2000. Data files for household-level and individual-level data are available for direct download from the web. Community-level data is also collected, but potential users must abide by data confidentiality terms and submit an agreement to that effect before a CD-ROM containing the data will be sent via the postal service.

Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) (U.S. Department of Energy)
The Comprehensive Epidemiologic Data Resource (CEDR) is a “public-use repository of data from occupational and environmental health studies of workers at DOE facilities and nearby community residents. DOE is the federal agency responsible for the development, testing, and production of nuclear weapons. Because this work involves exposures to ionizing radiation and other potentially hazardous materials, DOE established an epidemiologic program in the 1960's to monitor the health of its workforce. Later, an environmental dose reconstruction program was initiated to study the potential health risks due to releases that traveled off-site to communities near DOE facilities.” The site includes multiple datasets related to radiation and health. Abstracts are available in html format. Users must be authorized to view data from the site. Authorization information is available on the site under the link “How to become an authorized CEDR user.”

Connecticut Economic Information System (Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development)
The CEIS is a collection of demographic and economic information about the state of Connecticut. Topics include employment and labor force, census data, exports, profiles of towns and other areas, and other economic indicators. Files are available in Excel and HTML.

Data Online for Population, Health, and Nutrition (DOLPHN) (U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID))
DOLPHN is an online database of 70 demographic and health variables for over 200 countries, compiled and cited from a variety of sources. Data entries go by 5-year increments 1950 to 1980, annually from 1981 to 2005, and then by 5-year increments again for future projections out to 2050. Depending on the country and the source, there are many gaps. An interactive menu screen allows the user to select countries, variables, years, and output options, including HTML or Excel, and various graph outputs. DOLPHN also includes biannual Country Health Statistical Reports for over 60 countries, as PDF documents.

DATA2010: The Healthy People 2010 Database (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
This interactive database was created in support of the CDC's Healthy People 2010 program, which comprises a list of 467 health objectives for the U.S. population by the year 2010. Each objective contains a measure with a baseline and a specific target. The DATA2010 database incorporates data that corresponds to the objectives, from various sources including several federal government departments. Data can be sorted by focus areas, objectives, or demographic categories.

Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) (U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID))

The MEASURE DHS program facilitiates the Demographic and Health Survey, the Service Provision Assessment (SPA) Survey, and the HIV/AIDS Indicator Survey (AIS). The resulting datasets, which focus on Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, are available for direct downloading. Datasets include information on family planning, maternal and child health, child survival, AIDS, educational attainment, and household composition and characteristics. Online data tools include:

• the STATcompiler tool for quick facts and country comparisons, allowing users to build customized tables from DHS surveys and indicators.
• the HIV/AIDS Survey Indicators Database, for creating HIV/AIDS data tables from a variety of sources.
• the STATmapper tool for creating maps from DHS data in more than 75 countries.

Documentation and SPSS/PC and SAS data dictionaries are also available. Users must register and receive a password to download datasets.

DiversityData (Harvard School of Public Health)
The DiversityData project at the Harvard School of Public Health is aimed at users who are interested in describing, profiling and ranking United States metropolitan areas in terms of quality of life, with an emphasis on diversity issues. The site encourages researchers, policymakers and community advocates to make use of the data to advocate for policy action and social change. Visitors to the site can examine metropolitan areas on a range of social measures such as education, housing opportunities, economic opportunities, residential integration, and health, using data from multiple data sources. The emphasis on diversity applies to various racial/ethnic, income and nativity groups. The strength of the DiversityData resource is its user-friendly menus and its display of profiles, rankings and maps. The site currently only offers a single year worth of data for any variable, and focuses on data display rather than download.

Economic and Social Database: Latin America and the Caribbean (U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID))
These pages provide a regional economic overview and a database query by sector (poverty, health, education, environment and more). Database results can be returned in HTML or as an Excel spreadsheet.

Feeding America: The Studies (Feeding America)
Formerly named America's Second Harvest, Feeding America is the largest charitable hunger relief organization in the United States, providing direct assistance as well as hunger-related research and policy efforts. The page called "The Studies" provides access to reports on "Hunger in America" and "The Hunger Almanac", both in PDF, containing statistics on hunger in the United States.

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (Gallup and Healthways)

The polling firm Gallup and health-management firm Healthways have teamed up to produce the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Conceived as a 25-year initiative, the project is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults daily, 350 days a year, asking questions designed to reflect how Americans evaluate their health, their work, and their lives in general. The index aims to be “the official measure for health and well-being” for the United States.

Component indices include life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behaviors, work environment, and basic access. The site carries national graphs of the indices since January 2008, monthly reports, and daily snapshot findings. The site also links to a companion resource hosted by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) that creates annual reports based on Well-Being index data for each of the Congressional Districts in the U.S.

GenderStats (World Bank)
GenderStats is an interactive database of gender statistics, developed by the World Bank's Gender and Development. GenderStats offers country data sheets showing summary gender indicators, basic demographic data, population dynamics, labor force structure, and education and health statistics. Data sources for GenderStats include national statistics, United Nations databases, and World Bank-conducted or funded surveys. Results may be saved in Excel format.

General Household Survey, Great Britain (Social Survey Division, Office for National Statistics)
According to the GHS web site, “The General Household Survey (GHS) is a multi-purpose continuous survey carried out by the Social Survey Division of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which collects information on a range of topics from people living in private households in Great Britain. The survey started in 1971 and has been carried out continuously since then, except for breaks in 1997/98 (when the survey was reviewed) and 1999/2000 when the survey was re-developed.” General Household Survey documentation and datasets are online at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=5756&More=N. A particularly user-friendly presentation of GHS 2002 results, including time-series tables in Excel, can be found in the Living in Britain 2002 report at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/lib2002/ (the 2000 and 2001 reports are also online).

German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) (Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW))
The GSOEP is a longitudinal study of private households across Germany, ongoing since 1984. Some of the many topics include household composition, occupational biographies, employment, earnings, health and satisfaction indicators. The GSOEP web site carries information about the study, including the questionnaires and a web interface to the data (SOEPinfo) that allows for frequency queries and item correspondence. Also available is contact information for obtaining the data directly from GSOEP. [NOTE: DISC has 1984-2002 available on CD-ROM in the library, Study #CA-511-001; more current data releases are available for purchase from GSOEP.]

Global Data Monitoring Information System: Millennium Development Goals (World Bank Group)
The World Bank Group sponsors the Global Data Monitoring Information System: Millennium Development Goals website. The World Bank has adopted the 8 goals set out by the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals initiative, and has developed a query system for displaying data by target, by region, and by country, as graphs and HTML tables, downloadable in Excel. The site also provides an Online Atlas of the Millennium Development Goals, a graphical world-map display that shrinks or enlarges the display-size of countries based on their progress toward the goals.

GlobalHealthFacts.org (Kaiser Family Foundation)
The GlobalHealthFacts site joins the StateHealthFacts site in the web-presence of the Kaiser Family Foundation. GlobalHealthFacts contains a single year’s worth of data by country covering HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, avian flu, SARS, and yellow fever, along with several variables on programs, funding, and demography. Tables, by country or topic, may be downloaded in tab-delimited format.

Google Flu Trends (Google.org)
Google.org, the altruistic arm of Google, Inc., offers a novel take on tracking influenza outbreaks in the United States, based on aggregated data from certain flu-related Google search terms. Google reports that their numbers are very much in line with flu surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control. However, since the CDC’s numbers must be reported by actual physicians nationwide and compiled before release, Google’s instantly-available search numbers can anticipate CDC reports of flu outbreaks by one or even two weeks. The Google.org data, broken out weekly by state and region back to 2003, can be downloaded in CSV.

HCUPnet (U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research)
HCUPnet is part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, developed and maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The HCUPnet interface provides access to national (U.S.) statistics about hospital stays, using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS), the Kids' Inpatient Database (KID), and the State Inpatient Databases (SID) for states that participate. Users can generate custom tables by selecting specific conditions of interest, outcomes or measures such as length of stay or in-hospital death, and types of patients or hospitals to compare. The resulting tables can be displayed in printable versions or saved in Excel (xls) format.

Health and Medical Care Archive (HCMA) (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)
The Health and Medical Care Archive (HCMA) at ICPSR preserves and disseminates data from projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, including the Community Tracking Survey. The HCMA consists of close to 90 studies as of December 2005, all archived with ICPSR. Almost all of the data is available only to ICPSR member institutions, though documentation is freely browsable.

Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and Asset and Health Dynamics Among the Oldest Old (AHEAD) (University of Michigan)
The web site for both Institute for Social Research (ISR), University of Michigan datasets. Both HRS and AHEAD are nationally representative longitudinal data collections begun in the early 1990s that examine retirement and the aging of society. Free registration is required to gain access to the data.

Health Data for All Ages (HDAA) (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics)
According to the HDAA site, "this site presents tables that provide CDC health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. You can customize tables with any or all of the following characteristics: age, gender, race/ethnicity, and geographic location." Using the Beyond 20/20 system, users can browse and manipulate tables online, or download the tables and software for additional features. Table topics include: Pregnancy and Birth; Health Conditions/Risk Factors; Health Status and Disability; Health Care Access and Use; and Mortality.

Health Poll Search (Kaiser Family Foundation and Roper Center for Public Opinion Research)
The Health Poll Search database contains over 85,000 public opinion survey questions regarding health issues, selected from the Roper Center's public opinion data archive. The database is searchable by controlled subject terms, but also may be searched by keyword and limited by organization and date.

HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Database was developed to compile information on the AIDS pandemic and on HIV infection in population groups in developing countries, from studies appearing in medical and scientific literature, presented at international conferences, and appearing in the press. The database is available on CD-ROM; the site says “send an e-mail with mailing address to receive copy,” without mentioning any fees. The database is updated annually. Summary tables in XLS or CSV, and map graphics in GIF, are available for download from the site.

HNPStats (World Bank)
HNPStats, short for Health, Nutrition, and Population Statistics, is a component of the Knowledge Management System of the World Bank's Human Development Network. HNPStats offers a query system for an international database of time series covering indicators for health status, health determinants, and health finance. Results may be downloaded in Excel. The site also carries country summaries in Excel and PDF.

Housing and Household Economic Statistics (HHES) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
This page leads to statistics on several broad topics covered by the Census Bureau: housing, disability, health insurance, income, industry, labor force, occupation, poverty, program participation dynamics, small area income and poverty, wealth, and welfare reform.

Human Mortality Database (Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley and The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research)
The Human Mortality Database is the sister of the Human Life Table Database. The Human Mortality Database is also an outgrowth of the Department of Demography at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The Database measures mortality data by country, specifically industrialized countries such as the United States and much of Western Europe. Users can download data by country (free registration required).

Indiana Prevention Resource Center (Indiana University)
This site provides statistics from the Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC) about use and consequences of use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. The data highlights of the site are under the Local Data menu item. Annual survey results since 1996 from the Indiana Survey, formerly called Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use (ATOD) by Indiana Children and Adolescents are available in PDF. Another highlight is PREV-STAT™, a prevention-planning GIS tool that the IPRC uses on behalf of Indiana communities. PREV-STAT statistics by county are available for a number of indicators including adult gambling behaviors, alcohol outlets, and tobacco spending. The site also links to a query system called the Indiana Social Indicator System, allowing data queries on several datasets that have indicators related to alcohol and drugs.

Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (work-related) (U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Occupational safety and health statistics. As with other Bureau of Labor Statistics sites, users can download entire data files or interactively create custom tables.

International Shark Attack File (ISAF) (Florida Museum of Natural History and American Elasmobranch Society)
The International Shark Attack File site is the online face for an ongoing compilation of over 4000 shark attack investigations, from the mid-1500s to the present. Visitors will find maps, graphs, and HTML tables of shark attack numbers, along with articles putting shark attacks into perspective. The site also provides ordering information for publications and a database compiled of early case-histories from the ISAF.

JamStats (Planning Institute of Jamaica)
JamStats is a database project with the tagline and goal of "Tracking Jamaica's Progress," specifically toward the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The database, which uses DevInfo software, can either be accessed online or downloaded from the JamStats site (over 10Mb in a zipped archive; the database and DevInfo software must be downloaded separately). As of July 2009, the online application allows users to select from three databases: EduStats 2008, JamStats 2008-9, and Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) 2005 for Jamaica. Indicator groupings, aka Sectors, in the JamStats database include demography, economy, education, environment, gender equity, health, information & communication, and national security. Data appears most complete for the past decade, but occasional indicators have values as far back as 1960.

Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies – Databank (Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies)
The Databank at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies bills itself as a "comprehensive warehouse of data on racial populations” (scope is limited to the United States). The Joint Center is a research and public policy institution focusing on “public policy issues of concern to African Americans and other communities of color.” The information in the Databank includes factsheets, tables and reports (primarily in text or PDF) on topics including Black elected officials, children and youth, education, poverty, and health. Most of the information appears to be from 2001 and before. Some of the figures originate from Joint Center research, while others come from agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control.

Kaiser Family Foundation (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is an independent philanthropic organization that focuses on health care policy and education. Their site includes sections on Entertainment and Media, HIV/AIDS, Medicaid and Medicare, Reproductive and Sexual Health, and Women's Health Policy. Research reports incorporating charts and tables are also available.

Looking for Data on Health? (Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), United Kingdom)
The Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) of the United Kingdom has put together a set of resource pages called “Looking for Data on Health?” The site’s definition of “data on health” is intentionally broad and cross-disciplinary, referencing data at ESDS on issues such as child development, access to care, behavior and lifestyle, diet and nutrition, personal attitudes and opinion, government expenditure, and health policy. The pages include details on how to search and browse ESDS collections for health data; video tutorials for analyzing ESDS data online; and case studies for how ESDS data on health might be used. The site also links to various additional sources for data on health. While some of the sources have an international component, the data for the most part focuses on the United Kingdom, consistent with ESDS’ mission as a national data service. Users from outside the UK can register to access much of the data in the ESDS catalogue at http://www.esds.ac.uk/aandp/access/online_form.asp (UW-Madison is among the choices in the drop-down institution menu). However, certain data such as the ESDS International macrodata and UK Census data are licensed for UK users only.

Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project (City of Madison, Wisconsin)
The Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project program, funded by the City of Madison (Wisconsin) and hosted by UW-Madison's Applied Population Lab, offers a single year of selected data indicators plus mapping capability, covering the city of Madison as a whole and 70 neighborhoods, also organized as 57 planning districts. Indicators for each neighborhood include a basic area & population profile, public safety indicators, health & well-being indicators, community action & involvement indicators, economic vitality indicators, and housing quality & availability indicators. Mapping and neighborhood-comparison tools are available on the site. Note that some indicators, particularly relating to health and family well-being, are suppressed at the neighborhood level due to privacy concerns. The project launched as a pilot in 2008 with 5 neighborhoods, and went city-wide in October 2009.

Managed Care Digest Series (Aventis Pharmaceuticals)
These annual “e-digests” offer charts and HTML tables on issues in managed care. Topics include HMO-PPO/Medicare-Medicaid, Integrated Health Systems, and Medical Group Practice. Click on the digest title, and then on Table of Contents on the left side for the best access to the tables and charts.

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) (American Healthcare Research and Quality)
“The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, or MEPS as it is commonly called, is the third (and most recent) in a series of national probability surveys conducted by AHRQ (American Healthcare Research and Quality) on the financing and utilization of medical care in the United States.” A number of public use files are available for download, and some data is also available in tabular format. Online statistical tools are available for analyzing household data and employer-based insurance data.

Mexican Health and Aging Study (University of Pennsylvania)
The Mexican Health and Aging Study (MHAS) is a prospective panel study of health and aging in Mexico. The baseline survey was conducted in the Summer of 2001, with a follow-up in Spring-Summer of 2003. Data and documentation from both years are available for download; free registration is required to access the public use data files. In English and Spanish.

MIDMAC - Midlife Research (MacArthur Foundation)
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development (MIDMAC) was established in 1989 to explore different aspects of the middle age life-span from a variety of different perspectives, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and health care. The site contains information about the research studies; actual data is archived with ICPSR (search on MIDMAC or MIDUS).

Minority Data Resource Center (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The Minority Data Resource Center (MDRC) is a new addition to ICPSR’s growing collection of special-purpose archives, showcasing existing ICPSR data. The focus of the MDRC is data for comparative analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States. The subject coverage of the selected studies runs the gamut from education to housing to poverty to political participation. MDRC data falls into two general categories: studies that focus specifically on minority populations, such as the National Black Election Studies series; and studies with large enough sample sizes or ethnic/racial oversampling to permit meaningful analysis of issues that affect race and ethnic minority populations, such as the American Housing Survey series. While documentation is freely browsable, data download is available only to ICPSR member institutions, including UW-Madison.

Monitoring the Future Study (University of Michigan Survey Research Center)
Monitoring the Future is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults. This site includes access to publications, data tables and other information originating from these important surveys. The datasets themselves may be downloaded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMDHA). Monitoring the Future is one of several studies available from the University of Michigan Survey Research Center.

National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) (National Institute on Aging (NIA) and Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR))
The National Archive for Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) acquires and preserves data relevant to aging and gerontology research, partnering with ICPSR to archive and distribute the data. The NACDA web site at ICPSR provides searchable access to publicly-available NACDA data (free registration required) and also to aging-related data from the main ICPSR catalog, in which cases the download is restricted to ICPSR member institutions. Some NACDA data is also available for online analysis through the SDA system, thus searchable at the variable level.

National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) (National Association of Health Data Organizations)
According to its mission statement, "The National Association of Health Data Organizations (NAHDO) is a national, not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to improving health care through the collection, analysis, dissemination, public availability, and use of health data."

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the primary source of vital and health statistics for the United States. NCHS data systems include data on vital events as well as information on health status, lifestyle and exposure to unhealthy influences, the onset and diagnosis of illness and disability, and the use of health care. Some of the NCHS data systems and surveys are ongoing annual systems while others are conducted periodically. NCHS has two major types of data systems: systems based on populations, containing data collected through personal interviews or examinations; and systems based on records, containing data collected from vital and medical records. Data include: National Health Interview Survey, National Immunization Survey, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, National Survey of Family Growth, National Health Care Survey , National Employer Health Insurance Survey, National Vital Statistics System, and Mortality Data. Research activities include: Aging, AIDS, Classification of Diseases, Data on America's Children, Evaluation of Certificates, Healthy People 2000, International Activities, Minority Health, National Death Index, Nutrition Monitoring, and Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics.

Data Warehouse
FASTATS - an alphabetized subject list with links to NCHS reports and tables, as well as other statistical sources
Health Statistics via FTP

National Children's Study (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)
"The National Children's Study will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21." The idea of “environmental” influences is broadly defined and includes biological and chemical factors, physical surroundings, social factors, behavioral influences and outcomes, genetics, cultural and family influences and differences, and geographic location. The pilot for the study began in 2009, with the full study to begin at pilot centers in 2010 and Wave 1 of the full study to begin in 2011. The first preliminary pilot results will be available in 2011, with the full data set for pregnancy outcomes to be available in 2017. The study is a collaboration between several institutes and centers within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

National Data Analysis System (NDAS) (Child Welfare League of America)
The National Data Analysis System provides data and information about child welfare in order to provide an information-based grounding for children’s programs and policies in the US. Data available from the site include child abuse and neglect, adoption and foster care, child health, juvenile justice, and child welfare administration. Users can create their own tables and graphs for a single state or groups of states. Tables may be downloaded as ASCII files to be read in Excel. Many topics only cover the latest year’s data, generally two years behind due to reporting cycles. However, some topics have data over time going back a decade or more. The site also provides fact sheets and data trends reports for the fifty states plus the District of Columbia.

National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) (Cornell University)
The NDACAN web site provides descriptions and ordering information for several dozen datasets relevant to the study of child abuse and neglect. Documentation may be downloaded for free in PDF; datasets may be ordered in SPSS or SAS format for a fee.

National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) Online (U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission)
The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) collects emergency-room data from a nationwide probability sample of about 100 hospitals. Visitors to the NEISS web site can access the resulting reports and estimates since 1991, for up to a year at a time. The online database includes information about the person (sex, age); the product or product category; the injury (diagnosis, body part, hospital admission); and the locale in which the injury occurred (such as home or school or farm). The results screen includes both the reported cases and the national estimates when available. You can view the cases online or download them in a text file. SAS programs for formatting data and calculating estimates are also available for download.

National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (J. Richard Udry)
Add Health is a school-based study of the health-related behaviors of adolescents in grades 7-12. It has been designed to explore the causes of these behaviors, with an emphasis on the influence of social context. While this site provides useful information about the design of the new study, it does not allow downloading of data. Public release datasets are distributed at a price by Sociometrics Corp. as they become available, and are also available for download through ICPSR. DISC has the public use data Waves 1-2 and 3, 1994-1996 and 2001-2002, in our collection. Information about restricted-use Add Health data is also available on the Add Health site.

National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) (Urban Institute)

The National Neighborhood Indicators Project (NNIP) is a collaborative effort by the Urban Institute and local partners to further the development and use of neighborhood-level information systems in local policymaking and community building. With 32 partners as of June 2009, from Atlanta to Washington, the NNIP fosters local projects to gather and use local data to effect community change. Arts and Local Culture Indicators are a recent addition to the project, along with a Foreclosure Resources site. Note that reports on the site of partner activities are often in PDF. Access to actual data may take considerable drilling-down into partner web sites.

Visit DISC in person to use the Urban Institutes flagship data product, the Neighborhood Change Database (NCDB), to analyze decennial Census data at the tract level from 1970 through 2000.

National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use Files (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)
The Health-Care Quality Improvement Act of 1986 in the United States mandated the creation of the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), a clearinghouse for reporting on professional competence and conduct of physicians, dentists, and other health care practitioners. Information collected includes medical malpractice payments; adverse actions such as censures and revocations by licensing agencies, clinics and professional organizations; Medicare and Medicaid exclusions; and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency actions. The database came about to prevent health-care practitioners from escaping scrutiny in the wake of censures and malpractice by simply moving out of state. While the identifiable information in the NPDB can only be accessed by health-care entities and professional agencies, the site provides access to public use statistical files for research purposes that can be freely downloaded in ASCII or SPSS. The public-use data goes back to 1990 and is updated quarterly.

National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) (Urban Institute)
The National Survey of America's Families represents the noninstitutionalized, civilian population of persons under age 65 in the nation as a whole and in 13 states in particular: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. The survey provides quantitative measures of the quality of life in America, paying particular attention to low-income families. Data is available for download from the site (free registration required), along with an online statistical analysis tool based on the Survey Documentation and Analysis (SDA) software.

National Women’s Health Indicators Database (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office on Women’s Health)
“NWHID contains extensive health data from the year 2000 for the entire United States, and it will updated on a yearly basis. National, regional, state and county data are available and the data can be stratified by gender, race/ethnicity, and age concurrently. The database includes statistics on: Demographics, Mortality, Access to care, Infections and chronic disease, Reproductive health, Maternal health, Mental health, Prevention, and Violence and Abuse. Access is free, and users can make their own tables and graphs out of any data in the database. The database also incorporates a mapping capability using ArcView GIS. Age-adjusted data and 3-year averages are included for many of the health indicators.”

New Beneficiary Data System (U.S. Social Security Administration)
The Social Security Administration's NBDS contains extensive information on the changing circumstances of aged and disabled beneficiaries. Based initially on a national cross-sectional survey of new beneficiaries in 1982, the original database has been expanded with information from administrative records and a second round of interviews in 1991. Variables measured in the original New Beneficiary Survey (NBS) include demographic characteristics; employment, marital and childbearing histories; household composition; health; income and assets; program knowledge; and information about the spouses of married respondents. Public use data and documentation may be downloaded from the site.

Organisation Data Service (National Health Service, U.K.)
This site provides data files for health care organization and provider codes in the United Kingdom. Formerly known as National Administrative Codes Service.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Statistics (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)
This site provides a portal to free socio-economic statistics collected by the OECD. UW-Madison also subscribes to SourceOECD, OECD's premier fee-based statistics product.

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) (World Health Organization and United Nations)
This regional division of the World Health Organization maintains its own web site, including a substantial Health Data section. Included are Country Health Profiles (a text report with charts for each country) and a PAHO Basic Indicator Database with an interactive interface for generating HTML or Excel tables. The site also includes a useful list of links to National Epidemiological Surveillance Systems. In English and Spanish.

Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) (National Science Foundation and National Institute on Aging and others)
The PSID is a longitudinal survey of a representative sample of US individuals and their families, ongoing since 1968. The data were collected each year through 1997, and every other year starting in 1999. Topics include income and wealth, expenses, education, and health care. A section on philanthropic giving and volunteering was added in 2001. A subsetting utility is available on the site, or data files may be downloaded in their entirety.

Puerto Rican Maternal and Infant Health Study (PRMIHS) (Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University)
The PRMIHS is a cross-sectional study designed to provide information on the determinants of poor infant health among Puerto Ricans. The PRMIHS entailed collection of personal interview data from 2,763 mothers of Puerto Rican infants sampled from the 1994 and 1995 birth and infant death records of six U.S. vital statistics reporting areas (Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York City, Pennsylvania) and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The survey collected information on: infant mortality; birth weight; maternal health habits during pregnancy (e.g., nutrition, smoking, alcohol and drug use); prenatal care; well-baby care; illnesses and accidents during infancy; infant development and behavior; migration experience; acculturation; marriage patterns; social support. Data is freely available for download, subject to approval of an online application.

Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) (U.S. Bureau of the Census)
The Small Area Health Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) program provides state and county-level estimates of health insurance coverage status in the U.S. The program’s estimates tend to be several years in the making; for example, in August 2009, SAHIE released 2006 estimates. At the state level, the estimates are categorized by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, and income categories, while at the county level, the categories are by age, sex, and income. The estimate models combine data from various sources, including the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, Census 2000, the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates Program, aggregated federal tax returns, participation records for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps), County Business Patterns, and Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) participation records.

Sociometrics Corporation (Sociometrics Corp)
The Sociometrics Corporation is a commercial entity that provides data & documentation in six major areas: sexuality, health & adolescence; family; social research on aging; drug abuse; AIDS/STD; and disability. Studies can be searched or browsed; The datasets may be ordered for a fee, or may be available through other DISC subscriptions.

State Health Facts Online (Kaiser Family Foundation)
The State Health Facts site "is designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 states." Coverage falls into twelve subject areas:

• Demographics and the economy
• Health status
• Health coverage and uninsured
• Medicaid and SCHIP
• Health costs and budgets
• Medicare
• Managed care and health insurance
• Providers and service use
• Minority health
• Women's health
• HIV/AIDS
• Children's health

State of the Nation's Cities: A Comprehensive Database on American Cities and Suburbs (Center for Urban Policy Studies, Rutgers University)
This database of 77 cities and suburbs was contracted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of the 1996 United Nations' Habitat II conference. The SONC database brings together over 3,000 variables from a wide variety of sources, allowing easy comparability of indicators on employment and economic development, demographic measures, housing and land use, income and poverty, fiscal conditions, and a host of other health, social, and environmental indicators." Users may download in a variety of formats including plain ASCII, SPSS portable file, Excel file, SAS formatted file, and a special file for Macintosh users.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
SAMHDA is a collection of substance abuse and mental health studies with a national focus. The data and documentation are housed at ICPSR at the University of Michigan, and are freely available for download. Selected datasets are also available for online analysis via the SDA system.

The Human Life Table Database (Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research and Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley,Institut national d'études démographiques)
The Human Life Table Database, compiled by the Max Plank Institute for Demographic Research, the Department of Demography at the University of California-Berkeley, and the Institut national d'études démographiques (INED) in Paris, provides population life information for a variety of countries. It includes “complete life tables in text format, abridged life tables in text format; references to statistical publications and other data sources, and scanned copies of the original life tables as they were published.” Users may browse data by country.

Tobacco Use Behavior Research (University of California, San Diego)
Hosted by the UC-San Diego Social Sciences Data Collection, the Tobacco Use Behavior Research collections include the following downloadable datasets: California Tobacco Surveys (1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2002), Teen Longitudinal Survey (1993-1999) and Tobacco Sales Data (1983-2003).

TransMONEE: Database of Socio-Economic Indicators for CEE/CIS Countries (United Nations Children's Fund and Innocenti Research Center)
TransMONEE contains over 150 economic and social indicators divided into ten different topics (population, natality, child and maternal mortality, life expectancy and adult mortality, family formation, health, education, child protection, crime indicators, and economic indicators) for 27 transition countries in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Annual time series data is available as far back as 1989. The TransMONEE data and country profiles are both available in Excel format.

Trends in Health and Aging (U.S. National Center for Health Statistics)
This site presents a collection of tables on trends in the health of older Americans showing data by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin. Using the Beyond 20/20 system, users can browse and manipulate tables online, or download the tables and software for additional features, including mapping and statistical tests. Tables are categorized into 19 topics: Chronic Conditions, Functional Status and Disability, Health Care Expenditures, Health Care Utilization, Health Insurance, Immunization, Incontinence, Injury, Life Expectancy, Living Arrangements, Mental Health, Mortality, Oral Health, Perceived Health Status, Population (Nation and State), Risk Factors, Socio-Economic Status, Special Equipment Use, and Use and Cost of Prescription Medication.

U.N. Social Indicators (United Nations Statistics Division)
Most-recently-collected year's worth of basic figures for many countries, in HTML tables, in these categories: population, child-bearing, youth and elderly populations, education, human settlements, literacy, water supply and sanitation, income and economic activity, housing, and unemployment.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Highlights from the USDA site include:

• New Releases from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), popularly known as "What We Eat In America," providing dietary data on 15,000 to 16,000 individuals nationwide. The survey was conducted by the Agricultural Research Service. The page also has ordering instructions for the data on CD-ROM.
• Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion provides published reports and tables, such as the Nutrient Content of the U.S. Food Supply, and the Healthy Eating Index. For more information, see the parent organization, Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC).
• Also home to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

• Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
  Page contains many current policy documents for the department.
• statistics/data section of their policy-planning page.
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  Includes health information, travelers' health, publications including the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), in PDF format. Also on this site are reports and data files from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.
  • National Center for Health Statistics
• National Institutes of Health
  • National Library of Medicine

U.S. Renal Data System (U.S. Health Care Financing Administration)
The USRDS is a national data system that collects, analyzes, and distributes information about end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States. Since Medicare includes an entitlement for ESRD treatment, data collection on this condition is extensive. The site includes an Annual Data Report (ADR) in PDF, and reference tables in PDF or text format. Instructions for contacting the USRDS with specific data requests are included as well.

UNdata (United Nations)
The United Nations is undertaking to bring together many of its various statistical databases under a single interface, at UNdata. As of February 2008, UNdata carries 14 databases containing over 55 million data points, covering a range of topics including population, industry, energy, trade and national accounts. The databases are accessible either by keyword searching from a single search page, or through a menu of databases. UNdata will be replacing the UN Common Database, which is slated to be discontinued in the summer of 2008. Indicators formerly offered through the UN Common Database will be listed under Key Global Indicators, and will be searchable through the main interface as well. However, the trade information in UNdata will not be replacing UN Comtrade, which will continue to cover a deeper and more fully-featured set of merchandise statistics.

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (United Nations Children's Fund)
This is the official home page for UNICEF. There is a wealth of information available, as well as statistical data broken down by country, in addition to various world maps for selected indicators. Statistics may be accessed under the "Information Resources" link.

Wisconsin Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) (Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis (CHSRA), University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Wisconsin is one of 20 states that links hospital discharge data with vehicle crash data from the Department of Transportation, providing information on the types of injury and costs associated with various kinds of crashes. The Wisconsin CODES site carries tables, some in HTML and some in PDF, such as statewide crash-level and injury outcome reports back to 1996. DISC has the public-use data files containing annual data for Wisconsin, 1992-2002. Please see DISC staff for access to the public-use files, which are available under certain conditions and restrictions.

Wisconsin Health Statistics (Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS))
This site provides links to statistics on various aspects of health information in Wisconsin. Topical links include cancer, health care providers, health insurance status, Behavioral Risk Factor survey, Family Health survey, local data, minority health, oral health, vital statistics, and tracking the state health plan (Healthiest Wisconsin 2010).

WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) (Centers for Disease Control)
WISQARS (pronounced "whiskers") is a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, designed to allow custom queries for injury-relateddata. WISQARS combines mortality data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics and population data from the Census Bureau, beginning in 1981. The site has two sections: WISQARS Fatal, for injury mortality data; and WISQARS Nonfatal, for national estimates of non-fatal injuries. Reports can be produced by year, age, race, sex, Hispanic origin, and state.

World Development Indicators (UW-Madison Subscription) (World Bank)
The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. The latest WDI includes approximately 800 indicators in 87 tables, organized in six sections: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links. The tables cover 152 economies and 14 country groups-with basic indicators for a further 55 economies. WDI timeseries data begins in 1960. The latest "print version" is online at http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.web/worlddevelopmentindicatorstext. Note: UW-Madison subscribes via IP-authentication.

World Health Organization (WHO) (World Health Organization and United Nations)
WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations whose function is to give worldwide guidance and set global standards for health, cooperating with governments in strengthening national health programs. See the "Research Tools" area of the site for links to international statistical information, including the Global Burden of Disease project, WHO mortality statistics, and statistics by disease or condition.

World Health Organization Statistical Information System (WHOSIS) (World Health Organization)
Provides searching and browsing options for finding international health-related statistics on the WHO web site and beyond. Online databases accessible from the WHOSIS page include Core Health Indicators; Life Tables; Mortality; Tuberculosis; HIV/AIDS; Alcohol; and Global Health Atlas. The WHO data offerings are more extensive than is immediately apparent. Users may want to use the site-search function on the WHOSIS page. The site also offers what they call a WHOSIS query service, consisting of a Frequently Asked Questions document and a contact form to send a question to WHO staff.

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