Disability Databases

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

The BRFSS is a telephone survey conducted by all state health departments, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam with assistance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The BRFSS is the largest continuously conducted telephone health survey in the world. States use BRFSS data to track critical health problems and to develop and evaluate public health programs. The BRFSS is the primary source of information on the health-related behaviors of adults in this country. States use standard procedures to collect data through monthly telephone interviews with adults 18 or older. BRFSS interviewers ask questions related to behaviors that are associated with preventable chronic diseases, injuries, and infectious diseases. Information from the survey is used to improve the health of the American people. Learn more about BRFSS.

Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (SMART)

The Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (SMART) project uses the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to analyze the data of selected metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas (MMSAs) with 500 or more respondents. Preliminary results show that the prevalence of certain behaviors vary widely across metropolitan and micropolitan areas and counties. By filling a critical need for local area surveillance data, this new analysis of BRFSS data will help local health officials plan, implement, and evaluate their prevention efforts. Learn more about SMART.

CDC Wonder

CDC Wonder is a wide-ranging on-line database for epidemiologic research and an easy-to-use, menu-driven system that makes the information resources of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) available to public health professionals and the public at large. It provides access to a wide array of public health information. CDC WONDER, developed by the CDC, is an integrated information and communication system for public health. Its purposes are: to promote information-driven decision making by placing timely, useful facts in the hands of public health practitioners and researchers, and to provide the general public with access to specific and detailed information from the CDC. Learn more about CDC Wonder.

Child Trends

Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting research and providing science-based information to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children and their families. In advancing its mission, Child Trends collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; designs and evaluates programs; and develops and tests promising approaches to research in the field. Learn more about Child Trends.

National Co-morbidity Survey Replication Study (NCS-R)
Mental Illness Exacts Heavy Toll, Beginning in Youth: Researchers supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found that half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, and that despite effective treatments, there are long delays - sometimes decades - between first onset of symptoms and when people seek and receive treatment. The study also reveals that an untreated mental disorder can lead to a more severe, more difficult to treat illness, and to the development of co-occurring mental illnesses. Learn more about the NCS-R.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducts the NHANES, the only national source of objectively measured health data capable of providing accurate estimates of both diagnosed and undiagnosed medical conditions in the population. NHANES represents a unique collaboration between the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and others to obtain data for biomedical research, public health, tracking of health indicators, and policy development. Learn more about NHANES.

National Health Care Survey (NHCS)
The NHCS embraces a family of health care provider surveys, obtaining information about the facilities that supply health care, the services rendered, and the characteristics of the patients served. Each survey is based on a multistage sampling design that includes health care facilities or providers and patient records. Data, that are collected directly from the establishments and/or their records rather than from the patients, identify health care events--such as hospitalizations, surgeries, and long-term stays--and offer the most accurate and detailed data on diagnosis and treatment, as well as on the characteristics of the institutions. These data are used by policymakers, planners, researchers, and others in the health community to monitor changes in the use of health care resources, to monitor specific diseases, and to examine the impact of new medical technologies, to mention a few. Learn more about the NHCS.

National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
The NHIS is the principal source of information on the health of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and is one of the major data collection programs of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). NHIS data are used widely throughout the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to monitor trends in illness and disability and to track progress toward achieving national health objectives. The data are also used by the public health research community for epidemiologic and policy analysis of such timely issues as characterizing those with various health problems, determining barriers to accessing and using appropriate health care, and evaluating Federal health programs. Learn more about NHIS.

National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-D)
One important goal of the NHIS-D was to develop a series of questionnaires that would provide a useful set of measures while maintaining a balance between the social, administrative, and medical considerations involved in disability measurement. The NHIS-D is not limited to one definition of disability; therefore, it will allow analysts from varying programs to combine data items in different ways to meet specific agency or program needs. It is designed to collect data that can be used to understand disability, to develop public health policy, to produce simple prevalence estimates of selected health conditions, and to provide descriptive baseline statistics on the effects of disabilities. Learn more about the NHIS-D.

National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) Policy and Legislation Database
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) Policy and Legislation Database contains Federal and State laws/statutes, Federal legislative materials and Federal administrative and executive materials, including regulations, institutional policies and executive orders. The database currently focuses on the following subject areas: privacy of genetic information/confidentiality; informed consent; insurance and employment discrimination; genetic testing and counseling; and commercialization and patenting. Learn more about the NHCRI Policy and Legislation Database.

National Vital Statistics System
The National Vital Statistics System is responsible for the Nation's official vital statistics. These vital statistics are provided through State-operated registration systems. The registration of vital events--births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and fetal deaths. Learn more about the National Vital Statistics System.

State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS)
The SLAITS collects important health care data at State and local levels. This data collection mechanism was developed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It supplements current national data collection strategies by providing in-depth State and local area data to meet various program and policy needs in an ever-changing health care system. Learn more about SLAITS.

State of States in Developmental Disabilities
State of the States in Developmental Disabilities was established in 1982 to investigate the determinants of public spending for mental retardation/developmental disabilities (MR/DD) services in the United States, the project maintains a 26-year longitudinal record of revenue, spending, and programmatic trends in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States as a whole. Analysis of the rich detail of the data base reveals the impact over time of federal and state fiscal policy, and illustrates important service delivery trends in the states in community living, public and private residential institutions, family support, supported employment, supported living, Medicaid Waivers, demographics, and related areas. These financial and programmatic trends are presented in The State of the States in Developmental Disabilities: 2004, by Mary C. Rizzolo, Richard Hemp, David Braddock, and Amy Pomeranz-Essley. Learn more about the State of the States Database.

U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
The main objective of SIPP is to provide accurate and comprehensive information about the income and program participation of individuals and households in the United States, and about the principal determinants of income and program participation. SIPP offers detailed information on cash and noncash income on a subannual basis. The survey also collects data on taxes, assets, liabilities, and participation in government transfer programs. SIPP data allow the government to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, and local programs. SIPP data have been used in the study of the costs associated with developmental disabilites. The SIPP has ICD-9 condition records. Visit the SIPP website.

AUCD is working to provide user-friendly access to critical databases for health and disability assessment, including identification of the critical databases for research, planning and policy development; and access to preferred methods and computer programs in epidemiology and statistics for the analyses and interpretation of targeted databases. Please contact Adriane K. Griffen with your comments and suggestions.