SOURCES OF DEMOGRAPHIC & HEALTH INFORMATION

FedStats: This site provides access to the full range of official statistical information available from the Federal Government (including population trends, education & health care costs). You can profile a geographic area of your choice, ranging from the nation as a whole to New York City and the Bronx.

Centers for Disease Control (CDC): This site provides data and statistics from the CDC, including vital statistics (birth, mortality), growth charts, injury statistics, the results of national surveys (e.g., BRFSS, NHANES, NHCS), and the Healthy People 2010 database.

NYC Vital Statistics: This site allows you to produce a "Community Health Profile" for different areas of New York City, including the Bronx. Simply type in the ZIP code of the area you are interested in at the bottom of the page and click "GO".

NYC Community District Profiles:  The NYC Department of City Planning manages this site, which provides statistics on the geographic, demographic and economic profiles of New York City's 59 community districts. To view a particular community district profile, select a neighborhood from the drop-down list at the top of the page (or click on a community district on the map), then select the community district you are interested in from the list displayed at the bottom of the new page.

 STATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODS RESOURCES

Hyperstat Online Textbook: This is an online statistics book with links to other statistics resources on the web.

Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics: This site includes Java applets that provide simulations/demonstrations of various statistical concepts (some of the simulations are pretty cool).

Research Methods Knowledge Base: This is a web-based textbook that covers all of the topics in a typical introductory course in research methods. It covers the entire research process including formulating a research question, selecting a study design, choosing a sample, defining the measures, analyzing the data, and writing the research paper.

Epi Info: This is a statistical software package that you can download for free from the Centers for Disease Control. It allows you to design a questionnaire or form, enter the data, and analyze it. Statistics, tables, graphs, and maps are produced with simple commands such as READ, FREQ, LIST, TABLES, and GRAPH.

SurveyMonkey: This is an on-line survey tool that allows you to design surveys, collect responses, and analyze the results. A subscription costs $19.95 per month (or $200 per year), and includes up to 1000 responses per month. If you exceed 1000 survey responses in any given month, there is an additional charge of $.05 per survey response. There are no long-term contracts, and you can cancel at any time.

OTHER RESOURCES

Medline Tutorial: This on-line tutorial (in PowerPoint format) provides a brief, step-by-step introduction to searching the Ovid Medline database. It was developed by the reference staff of the D. Samuel Gottesman Library at AECOM.

Language Translation Website:  Altavista offers a free online translation service. Simply copy and paste sections of the English document you want to translate, such as a survey or patient education material, and have it translated into one of the languages offered, which includes Spanish. Then cut and paste the translated text into a new word document. PLEASE NOTE: The resulting translation should be viewed as a literal and very rough draft. Before distributing the translated material, you should ask someone who is fluent in Spanish to proofread it and make any necessary corrections.

Partners in Information Access to the Public Health Workforce: This site is a portal to 100's of useful web sites, including those related to health promotion & health education, guidelines, health data tools & statistics, grants & funding, and conferences & meetings.

On-Line Medical & Science Dictionaries: This site provides a list of (and links to) general, medical, and bioscience dictionaries and other reference tools.

If you have a question about how to use any of these resources, or if you know of others, please contact Bill Burton at x.4259 or burton@aecom.yu.edu.