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��

Health Statistics & Data: How to find them and how to think about them��Presented by Michael Sholinbeck, ��Public Health and Optometry Librarian, ��University Library, University of California Berkeley.��We All Count Talking Data Equity, �September 29, 2023.��Contact: msholinb@library.berkeley.edu.��

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La Trahison des Images [The Treachery of Images] (1929), by R. Magritte (Flickr)

Who here knows french? (It means, this is not a pipe). So … I show this image as my cheeky way of saying, statistics and data are not reality. They are a often useful way to represent reality - one kind of information, with its own issues to consider. Keep in mind, each data point is a person, or a something, and that a lot of decisions go into what questions to ask, how to organize the responses, and so forth. How a question is asked is important, and sometimes the question itself creates the locus of power or agency. Compare:

Q1: Why are African American children expelled from school more than white children?
Q2: Why do schools expel disproportionate numbers of African American children?

Data are not some wholly objective thing, at least when we are thinking of data on human behavior, activity, and so forth. Data are one kind of information that, perhaps, by adding some knowledge, can lead us to some wisdom.

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Facts are never what they seem to be …

Facts are useless in emergencies …

Facts are simple and facts are straight.

Facts are lazy and facts are late.

Facts all come with points of view.

Facts don't do what I want them to.

Facts just twist the truth around.

Facts are living turned inside out.

Facts are getting the best of them.

Facts are nothing on the face of things.

from Crosseyed and Painless, by Talking Heads, 1980

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Asthma Diagnosis in Bay Area Kids, 2019-20�from Kidsdata.org, using CHIS data.�

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From NHANES data: �http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db213.htm, �Caloric Intake From Fast Food Among Children and Adolescents in the United States, 2011–2012.�

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Market volume of meat, USA.�Source: Statista.

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Is it “health”?

Source info: tiny url.com/5t45354r.

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Is it “health”?

Debt delinquency: any debt in collections, 2022.

Source: Urban Institute, tinyurl.com/ymmtz985.

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Is it “health”?

Data and Statistics, California Department of Education�Data on school enrollment, non-English language learners, free lunch numbers, teacher data, class size, and much more.

Calif. Dept of Alcoholic Beverage Control: License Lookup�Find liquor stores, bars, etc., by address, census tract, city, etc. Can also search by business name, licensee name, license number.

Traffic Operations (CalTrans)�Traffic volumes, truck traffic, and ramp volume for California state highways. View tables, or download data as Excel files.

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Share of respondents who plan on purchasing a holiday gift for their pet in the U.S. in 2020, by generation

U.S. shoppers who plan on buying a holiday gift for their pet 2020, by generation

Note(s): United States; September 2020; 2,007 respondents; Both pet owners and non-pet owners were surveyed

Further information regarding this statistic can be found on page 8.

Source(s): APPA; ID 1191782

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Is "Cause of Death" a Count or an Estimate?

"Before COVID-19, many people seemed to have believed that every death in the United States - indeed in the world - was accurately registered in some universally accessible system that would serve as an eternal record of who died from what and when. Perhaps one of the silver linings of the pandemic has been that it has exposed that notion as fantasy."

National mortality data is available at National Vital Statistics System; global statistics are available from WHO.

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Caution: Survey Ahead!

Lots of health data comes from surveys. Here are some issues to consider when looking at survey or estimated data:

Look at sample sizes and survey response rates - representative of your population? Enough responses to be valid?
Who was surveyed? - representative of population being compared to? Include group you are interested in?
Were the survey respondents from heterogeneous groups? Do the survey questions have a similar meaning to members of different groups?
How was survey conducted? Via telephone? - Many people only have cell phones. Random selection or targeted group?
What assumptions and methods were used for extrapolating the data?
Look at definitions of characteristics - Does this match your own definitions?
Who identified race/ethnicity of respondents/participants?
When was the data collected? Who collected it?

(Adopted from information on the UCSF Family Health Outcomes Project web site, and from How to “QuantCrit:” Practices and Questions for Education Data Researchers and Users)

Also, many surveys only question a specific subset of the population: Medicare beneficiaries / Youth / Employed people.

AND: some people are excluded from some surveys (at least, in the US…), or are hard to reach:

[ASK for examples: Please add examples of hard-to-reach populations in the chat, if you are so inclined to do so …] Active military / institutionalized / unhoused / undocumented, …

Plus, large sample size alone does not necessarily mean the sample is representative.

AND – the RESPONSE RATES of most surveys have significantly decreased over recent decades. (WHY ..? ___ )

Anyway, CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics is the major source of US and state level stats on health conditions and behaviors. They conduct numerous surveys and get their info through personal interviews, examinations, and from vital and medical records.

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Who is missed or not counted well in “standard” surveys? �(ie, census, CDC surveys, etc.)

Trans and non-binary folks
Multiracial folks
Disaggregated AANHPI, and other racial/ethnic identities

I mpact of Racial Categorization on Effect Estimates: An HIV Stigma Analysis

Considerations for transgender population health research based on US national surveys

Federal statistical datasets allowing disaggregation of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Other Pacific Islander communities

A lot of folks’ identities are not captured well in a lot of the data collection going on:

trans, non-binary, etc. folks / multiracial folks … here is some recent research on these topics.

Transgender folks are difficult to get reliable data on, not insignificantly because of the politicization of TG health. The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System added an optional sexual orientation and gender identity module that includes a question about transgender identity in 2014; only 6 states have administered it in all years and 12 states have never used this module. This means that while the overall BRFSS datasets are indeed nationally representative, the subsamples of transgender respondents are inadequate for generalizing to national patterns.

As for race, there’s been a historical belief in “pure” single category races. That does not allow for reality, right? Also, by the way, for the US Census, race used to be determined by the person interviewing; it wasn’t until the 1960 or 70 census that folks could choose their race, and 2000 was the first census with multi-race categories.

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Reliability and Validity

Reliable data collection: relatively free from "measurement error."

Is the device used to measure elapsed time in an experiment accurate?
Is the survey written at a reading level too high for the people completing it?

Validity refers to how well a measure assesses what it claims to measure

If the survey is supposed to measure "quality of life," how is that concept defined?
How accurately can data from an animal study of drug metabolism be extrapolated to humans?

(Adopted from Chapter 3, Conducting research literature reviews : from the Internet to paper, by Arlene Fink; Sage, 2010.)

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Yay! Success

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How Not to Use Data Like a Racist

Screenshots from How Not to Use Data Like a Racist, presented by Heather Krause, of We All Count

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QuantCrit Principles

The centrality of racism;

Numbers are not neutral;

Categories are not neutral nor given;

Voice and insight: Data cannot “speak for itself”;

A social justice/equity orientation.

Source: Castillo, Wendy, and David Gillborn. (2023). How to “QuantCrit:” Practices and Questions for Education Data Researchers and Users. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-546). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/v5kh-dd65.

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��Let’s find some statistics!�

tinyurl.com/HealthStatsData.

These slides:

tinyurl.com/HealthStatsSlides.

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American Community Survey

Data Profiles

From US Census. (2010 to present, with links to older).

Quickly get recent state, county, and city demographics, including age, race/ethnicity, income/employment, residence, languages spoken, education, and more. And here is a tool to get information on Tribal Areas.

Data: Census data is available from several sources.

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ACS Data Profiles: https://tinyurl.com/39s7v5c9

Select “Place” under Geography.
Select “California” then “Richmond city, California” (or, any other state/city you wish).
Click “Get Data Profile Links,” then Housing Characteristics. A new tab should open comparing Richmond to California.
Try the other links: Social, Economic, and Demographic for additional statistics.

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CARES Map Room

(Dates vary, some back to early 1900s; mostly 1980s to present).

The Map Room provides > 15,000 data layers down to census tract level for demographics, social and economic factors, physical environment, health behaviors, clinical care, and health outcomes, as well as a Community Health Needs Assessment reporting tool with 80+ health-related indicators. From the Center for Applied Research and Engagement Systems (CARES) at the University of Missouri.

Information data sources.

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CARES Map Room:

https://careshq.org/map-room/

In the Search Data box, type “poverty” then Search.
Select Population Below the Poverty Level, ACS 2017-21, then Add to Map.
Change Data Geography from County to Tract; the map will refresh in a moment.
In the Enter a location box, type, then choose, Richmond CA, USA, (or any other US location) and take a look at your map.

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Statista

(Dates vary).

Statista provides access to quantitative facts on media, business, politics, and other areas. Sources of information include market research reports, trade publications, scientific journals, and government sources. Health-related topics include health systems, care and support, the state of health, medical technology, pharmaceutical products and their market, and physicians, hospitals and pharmacies. Subscription required for full access.

Download data into spreadsheets and presentations.

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Statista:

https://www.statista.com/

In the search box, type:

Countries With The Most Firearms In Civilian Hands;

Click the link with that title.
Note the explanatory text and source information.
Note also the image download link, HTML code, etc.
Scroll down for related infographics.

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Lots More:

Here is a document with step-by-step instructions on fetching statistics from various sites. All are freely available. Enjoy!

https://tinyurl.com/HealthStatsData.

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Read!

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Read!

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Did you experience enjoyment yesterday?

Source info: tinyurl.com/2p8jj2mm.