The APLIC-International Communicator #64

APLIC-International, The Communicator, Spring 1997, Issue #64

The National Center for Health Statistics

http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/nchshome.htm By Peggy D'Adamo, Media/Materials Librarian,
Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs

The National Center for Health Statistics collection information on the health status of Americans and publishes it in a variety of electronic formats. All information is available free to the public. NCHS is trying to move toward total electronic publication at some time in the future, but will continue some publications in paper format. Most datasets will soon be available on CD-ROMs with a WIndows interface. The CD-ROMS contain raw data which must be statistically analyzed in order to be useful.

Publications Available from NCHS:

NCHS makes available a diskette with Health USA tables in spreasheet format, final mortality statistics as a PDF file with Adobe reader (on diskette or CD-ROM).

NCHS also publishes a list of its own publications from 1962-1996, available on disk. Publications are arranged by type, then by author and date.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is also available from NCHS on CD-ROM or at the NCHS web site.

The 1994 National Health Interview CD-ROM which contains all the data collected in the interviews is available on CD-ROM, free to libraries.

The Joy of Sets is a PDF file, available from NCHS, which tries to teach how to manipulate raw data.

In addition, there are finding aids for NCHS information and data, including:

A catalog of electronic products which includes detailed tables with the keywords from the survey questions. Available on diskette, CD-ROM, at the web site.

An electronic catalog in subject format, due out in Summer 1997.

The NCHS Web Site

Includes detailed descriptions of major data systems
Has links to published results of some data which are available in electronic format
Has a Data Warehouse with published statistical tables by topics, in HTML format; unpublished mortality tables in PDF format; and tables with details on death that cannot be found in any other sources.
An interactive query function

Communicator Table of Contents | Conference Agenda