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Home > Research > Resources by Topic > Finding Health Data and Statistics

Finding Health Data and Statistics

The purpose of this guide is to assist JPS researchers with locating health and data statistics. This guide provides links to sources of data and statistics collected and provided by numerous organizations and agencies.

How Can JPS Medical Library Help?

Locating health data and statistics can be challenging due to a multitude of various government, non-government, organizations, and private agencies that collect, analyze, and host the information. Keep in mind that you may not find current information on your topic due to a lag time in the data collection and results.

Before you start researching data and statistical resources, spend time developing a research question and brainstorming the identifying information needed.

Formulate Your Question

Narrow down a specific question to address for your research. However, keep in mind that you may have to broaden your topic to adapt to information as needed.

Consider the following:  Who is it that you want to study and when? Where are they located?

 

Brainstorm key concepts and scope of research that includes a unit of analysis, frequency, and geographic coverage.

Consider the following: Are you looking at individual or institutional level data? Annual, monthly, daily? Local, national, or International? Is there a time frame you want to study?

 

Identify the agency or organization that may collect the specific data on your topic.

Consider the following: Who collects and publishes the needed type of data? Government agencies, non-government agencies, associations, academic institutions, private sector, etc.?

If you are not sure where to find the data or statistics you need, start with the medical literature by focusing on your topic. Check for statistical tables or citations for leads on sources.

 

Example of key concepts and criteria for a research question:

In the last five years, what is the average age of adults aged 18 and over diagnosed with arthritis in the United States.

 

For more information or questions on how to develop a research question, please reach out to the Medical Library, visit our literature searching guide or view our tutorials.

After formulating your topic, brainstorm and identify various potential producers of the information. 

Finding Web Resources

For targeted results search for organization, government, and educational websites by commanding Google to only search websites with these certain domain types by using "site:gov", site:.edu", or "site:org." Diabetes Statistics site:.gov will retrieve only government websites that focus on diabetes statistics.

Finding Medical Literature

Searching the biomedical literature may be helpful to identify previously studied data on your topic or to see if there is a gap in the literature. Find journal articles that provide statistical tables/graphs or citations that point to statistical sources. 

PubMed or MEDLINE databases are great starting point for your search. Both databases use a controlled vocabulary that is used to index and label major concepts and terminology of a journal article.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) are beneficial to use because they include all synonyms and alternate spellings of a search term. Search the National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings database to locate MeSH terms to use in your search strategy.

Below are examples of MeSH Terms that can be used to locate journal articles focused on statistic:

  • Statistics
  • Vital Statistics
  • Data interpretation, Statistical
  • Bibliometrics
  • Models, Statistical
  • National Center for Health Statistics, U.S.
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Population Characteristics
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Incidence
  • Epidemiology

Combine these MeSH headings and other keywords with boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) for targeted search results.

For Example: (Lung Disease AND epidemiology)

MeSH Subheadings are also helpful for narrowing down search results. The subheading: /statistics and numerical data will only focus on this subset of information for your topic.

For example: Myocardial Infarction/statistics and numerical data

For more information or questions on how to conduct a search please reach out to the Medical Library, visit our literature searching guide or view our tutorials.

  • Finding Health Data and Statistics Course
    A National Library of medicine course designed for educators, information specialists, and students in the health sciences. This course describes different types of health statistics, how they are collected, and where they can be found.

  • Health Statistics on the Web Webinar
    In this 90-minute National Library of Medicine webinar, you will learn the difference between data and statistics, key features and use of health statistics, steps to finding health statistics, and sources of health statistics at the local, state and national level. The importance and relevance of health statistics in various contexts will be discussed. You will have the opportunity to become familiar with the features and scope of several statistics resources through the use of examples.