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.
National Statistics
- American Hospital AssociationThe American Hospital Association (AHA) is the national organization that represents and serves all types of hospitals, health care networks, and their patients and communities. Close to 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 40,000 individual members come together to form the AHA.
- CDC--Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDisease prevention and control, environmental health, health promotion and education activities, national health statistics.
- 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.
- Health United StatesAnnual report on trends in health statistics from the CDC.
- 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.
Global Statistics
- World Health Organization Statistical Information System (WHOSIS)This interactive database brings together core health statistics for 193 WHO member states. It comprises 100+ indicators, which can be accessed by a quick search, user-defined tables, or by major categories such as inequities, mortality, burden of disease, health service coverage, risk factors, and health systems resources.
- 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.
ICPSR
ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research) ICPSR is a non-profit membership-based data archive based at University of Michigan. ICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction.
ICPSR maintains a data archive of more than 500,000 files of research in the social sciences. It hosts 16 specialized collections of data in education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.
Selected Health and Mental Health-related data collections include:
Center for Population Research in LGBT Health -- data on access to quality health services, cancer, injury & violence prevention, mental health & mental disorders, nutrition & overweight, physical activity & fitness, substance abuse, tobacco use.
Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys data on the distributions, correlates, and risk factors of mental disorders among the general population, with special emphasis on minority groups.
Health & Medical Care Archive (HMCA) -- data archive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Includes data on health care providers, cost/access to health care, substance abuse & health, chronic health conditions.
Integrated Fertility Survey Series -- IFSS provides access to ten individual national studies of fertility encompassing the Growth of American Families (GAF), National Fertility Surveys (NFS), and National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG) as well as a single dataset composed of harmonized variables across all ten surveys.
National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP)-- data on crime, drug use, HIV, mental health, program evaluation, sexual behavior, youth.
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)-- Are you interested in determining the average age at which men begin smoking compared to women? What if you need to know about differences in marijuana use based on age, gender, education, or race? These and countless other questions can be answered by studies in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA) data holdings.
National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) -- data on aging includes health care needs, utilization and financing, demographic, social, economic, psychological, physical health & functioning characteristics.
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.