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It's a mouthful, but a new site hosted by the Centers for Disease Control, the "Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends" (SMART) is February's Site of the Month. It provides access to data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for 98 metropolitan and micropolitan areas (MMSAs) across the U.S. as well as for some counties within those MMSAs. The BRFSS is a state-based data system that collects information on health risk behaviors, preventive health practices, and health care access. The system compiles data from a range of sources including state health departments. States, communities, CDC, other Federal agencies, and researchers at universities and other institutions use data from BRFSS to identify emerging health problems, establish and track health objectives, and develop and evaluate public health policies and programs. You'll find data on a range of conditions and behaviors, including asthma, alcohol use, cancer screening (colorectal, breast, and cervical cancers), diabetes, obesity, physical activity and nutrition, oral health, tobacco use, health insurance coverage, and overall health.
You can use the site to navigate to "quick view" reports that
summarize key indicators for states or metropolitan areas compared to national
averages, and that allow you to see breakouts of selected county level
data. You can also compare data by state and metropolitan area on specific
topics related to health
risk. All of this is available at:
http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss-smart/index.asp
Interested in seeing how taxes, spending levels, public safety, and other key
socioeconomic indicators for your state compare with those for other states? A web page hosted by the Taxpayers Network offers
this wide variety of
data on all 50 states. Getting the data you want is a two step
process. First, you select individual states--or whole regions--from an
interactive map. The second step is to choose the subjects areas you
want from a list of eleven topics, including insurance, utilities,
agriculture, highways, education, health and welfare, business activity, and tax
data. The site then generates reports showing data and rankings for each
state you've chosen. You'll find this comprehensive source at:
http://www.taxpayersnetwork.org
(click on "50 State Comparison")
Thomas Hennen has compiled an impressive set of data ranking the nation's
libraries. The headline item is his list of top 100 American
libraries--the top ten libraries in each of ten separate population categories,
ranging from those serving 500,000 or more to those serving less than a thousand
readers. Some quality-of-life rankings use library circulation as a proxy
for population literacy, but as this site shows, there are many more facets to
library operations. Hennen's index is based on a composite 15 factors
ranging from circulation, staffing, patron visits and budgets, to collections
and collection turnover. If you want to dig into the detail for the
nation's 76 largest libraries, Hennen provides links to an Excel spreadsheet
showing how the ratings are computed. You can also view data for any
state, showing the state's overall ranking, and index numbers for each of public
libraries in that state. For more details, visit:
http://www.haplr-index.com/ratings.html
Following on the theme established by our site of the month, our February new links highlight a number of sources of information on health and safety topics.
Families USA
Health Action Took Kit
On-line briefing book with data on access to health insurance for families in
need. Topics include the uninsured, government medical
programs, private insurance, and drug coverage. Published annually.
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Advocates_Guides#conference
National Academy of
Social Insurance
Workers' Compensation
Annual report providing estimates of workers' compensation payments and costs,
for states, the District of Columbia, and federal program providing workers'
compensation. Also provides coverage information. (.pdf download)
http://www.nasi.org/publications2763/publications_list.htm?cat=Reports
National Center for
Tobacco-Free Kids
State Tobacco Settlements
For each state, data regarding amount of tobacco settlement funds and extent to
which funds are used for public health purposes.
http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/
National Safety Council
Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety
Campaign
Periodic data reports on injuries linked to air bags and lack of seat belt use.
http://www.nsc.org/airbag.htm
National Sporting Goods
Association
Sports Participation
Participation index for five most popular sports in each state, for 2000.
http://www.nsga.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=157
U.S. Public Interest
Research Group
Playground Safety
Periodic survey of the safety of public playgrounds, with state summaries.
http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=7219&id3=USPIRG&