Secondary Data Sources for Public Health: A Practical Guide

Sarah Boslaugh

Apr 2007 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Secondary data play an increasingly important role in epidemiology and public health research and practice; examples of secondary data sources include national surveys such as the BRFSS and NHIS, claims data for the Medicare and Medicaid systems, and public vital statistics records. Although a wealth of secondary data is available, it is not always easy to locate and access appropriate data to address a research or policy question. This practical guide circumvents these difficulties by providing an introduction to secondary data and issues specific to its management and analysis, followed by an enumeration of major sources of secondary data in the United States. Entries for each data source include the principal focus of the data, years for which it is available, history and methodology of the data collection process, and information about how to access the data and supporting materials, including relevant details about file structure and format.

About the author

Sarah Boslaugh received her PhD from the City University of New York and her MPH from Saint Louis University. She is currently a Performance Research Analyst for BJC Healthcare in Saint Louis, MO, and has previously worked as a biostatistician and methodologist at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, Saint Louis University School of Public Health, and Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis. She has also written An Intermediate Guide to SPSS Programming: Using Syntax for Data Management and is editing the Encyclopedia of Epidemiology.