Tutorial: How to Find Healthcare Statistics
Struggling to find health-related data or statistics?
View this PDF tutorial on "How to find healthcare statistics."
Massachusetts Data
- CHIA: Center for Health Information and AnalysisThis independent agency collects, analyzes and disseminates information on health care spending. Analyses data on cost and price of the Mass. health care system and health status of individuals, health care provider and payer costs, prices and cost trends.
- Boston Indicators ProjectThe Boston Indicators Project’s website is organized by 10 primary Sectors and 6 Cross-Cutting Topics. It includes 70 broad goals, 150 detailed indicators and roughly 350 affiliated measures designed to highlight conditions and trends in Boston, its neighborhoods and region as well as outcomes for specific groups.
- Health of Boston ReportFrom the Boston Public Health Commission. The purpose of this annual report is to provide descriptive information about the health status, and factors that influence the health status, of Boston residents. Includes data for Boston neighborhoods.
- Health of MassachusettsTopics include cities, towns, counties, state totals, healthy start regions, and more.
- City of Boston.govNeighborhood statistics and data
- MassCHIP (Massachusetts Community Health Information Profile)The Massachusetts Community Health Information Profile (MassCHIP) is a dynamic, user-friendly information service that provides free, online access to these and many other health and social indicators. With MassCHIP, you can obtain community-level data to assess health needs, monitor health status indicators, and evaluate health programs.
- Race and Ethnicity ReportsThe Health Status Indicators by Race and Ethnicity contains charts and graphs depicting a comparison of health status indicators for Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Whites in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
U.S. Health Data
- CDC--Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDisease prevention and control, environmental health, health promotion and education activities, national health statistics.
- County Health RankingsFrom the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation & University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The Rankings look at a variety of measures that affect health such as the rate of people dying before age 75, high school graduation rates, unemployment, limited access to healthy foods, air and water quality, income, and rates of smoking, obesity and teen births.
- Health United StatesHealth data (including state data) for a variety of ethnicities and age groups for selected topics, including diseases, risk factors, health care expenditures, poverty, preventive care, and more.
- CDC WonderAccess statistical research data published by CDC, as well as reference materials, reports and guidelines on health-related topics. The data is ready for use in desktop applications such as word processors, spreadsheet programs, or statistical and geographic analysis packages. File formats available include plain text (ASCII), web pages (HTML), and spreadsheet files (Tab Separated Values). All of these facilities are menu-driven, and require no special computer expertise.
- Dartmouth Atlas of Health CareMedicare data is used to provide analysis at the national, regional and local levels, on how medical resources are distributed and used in the U.S.
- Health Data Interactive -- From the CDCPresents tables with national health statistics for infants, children, adolescents, adults & older adults. Tables can be customized by age, gender, race/ethnicity, geographic location to explore different trends and patterns.
- Healthy People 2020Healthy People provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. For 3 decades, Healthy People has established benchmarks and monitored progress over time in order to:
Encourage collaborations across communities and sectors.
Empower individuals toward making informed health decisions.
Measure the impact of prevention activities - Medical Expenditure Panel SurveyMEPS is the most complete source of data on the cost and use of health care & health insurance coverage. Includes health care disparities, access to health care, the uninsured, medical conditions, men's, women's & children's health, projected data & expenditures, Medicare, Medicaid, obesity, mental health, prescription drugs, quality of health care, state/metro area estimates.
- National Center for Health StatisticsLinks to national survey results, vital statistics, initiatives on aging, minority health, classification of diseases and more.
- PeriStatsAccess to the most current maternal & infant health statistics from 12 gov't agencies, at the U.S., state, county & city level, on preterm birth, infant mortality, tobacco use, c-section rates, health insurance. Detailed information by race, ethnicity, maternal age for many indicators. Compare between states, counties, cities, & the U.S. 60,000 graphs, maps, tables can be exported for reports & presentations.
Global Data
- Demographic and Health SurveysInformation on developing nations. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- OECD HealthOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Includes Health Data 2011, health & biotechnology policies, chemical safety, economics of health and more. Display data by country or date.
- World Health OrganizationMortality & health status, diseases, risk factors, health systems, immunization, maternal & neonatal care.
Data Resources
- America's Health RankingsAnnual analysis of national health on a state-by-state basis. Ranks the healthiest and least healthy states. Browse by state and by measure. Includes Senior data.
- Research Data and Tools: Agency for Healthcare Research and QualityState Snapshots, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, U.S. Health Information Knowledgebase (metadata registry of healthcare-related data standards funded and directed by AHRQ.
- HSR Information Central: Data, Tools & StatisticsFrom the National Institutes of Health, HSRIC is a research portal of health services research resources providing numerous Internet links to data, funding announcements, reports, podcasts, discussion groups, and more. It contains selective links representing a sample of available information. Items are selected for their quality, authority of authorship, uniqueness, and appropriateness.
- ICPSR: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social ResearchICPSR is a non-profit membership-based data archive based at University of Michigan. Access to datasets and related studies on a wide variety of topics.
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Data HubThe official data archive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is free and accessible to all researchers, students and policy-makers. National averages and state data for health care costs and quality, covering the uninsured, insurance status, public health, social determinants of health, healthier lifestyles, health care value and equality. Select from a wide variety of indicators, such as obesity, preventable hospitalizations, immunizations, nutrition policies, smoking, BMI screening, chronic disease prevalence, public health funding, medicare/medicaid costs, income inequality, unemployment, and much more.
- SimplyAnalyticsA mapping application that enables users to develop interactive thematic maps and reports using thousands of demographic, business, health, crime, and marketing data variables including Mediamark and Simmons Consumer Data. Data from the year 2000.
Database of Health Policy Data Sources
Harvard Catalyst's Policy Atlas is a comprehensive database of policy and public health data for researchers, policymakers, and community advocates. Use it to find sources for policy data appropriate to your research topic.
Mapping and Visualization
- Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Data VisualizationsThe Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them.
- WHO: Global Health Observatory Map GalleryThe GHO map gallery includes an extensive list of maps on major health topics, such as child health, environmental health, HIV/AIDS, mortality & global burden of disease, tobacco control, violence prevention & more.
- HealthMap: Global Disease Alert MapReal time infectious disease surveillance (Boston Children's Hospital)
Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce
A collaboration of U.S. government agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries.
- Health Data Tools and StatisticsCounty, local, state, national, global health data. Demographics, GIS, statistical reports, health information technology & standards, tools for data collection and planning.