National Center for Health Statistics

Last updated
National Center for Health Statistics
Agency overview
Formed1960
Jurisdiction Federal government of the United States
Headquarters Hyattsville, Maryland, U.S.
Employees700–750
Agency executive
  • Brian C. Moyer, Ph.D., Director, National Center for Health Statistics
Parent agency United States Department of Health and Human Services
Website www.cdc.gov/nchs/

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is a U.S. government agency that provides statistical information to guide actions and policies to improve the public health of the American people. It is a unit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System. It is headquartered at University Town Center in Hyattsville, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C.

Contents

History

The Marine Hospital Service, predecessor of the Public Health Service (PHS), began collecting data on communicable diseases and performing surveillance of the incidence and distribution of diseases due to an 1878 act of Congress. In 1893, another law provided for weekly collection of data from state and municipal authorities. [1]

The Division of Sanitary Reports and Statistics was established in 1899 as part of the initial establishment of internal divisions within the Marine Hospital Service. [2] Separately, the Division of Public Health Methods was formed in 1937 within the National Institute of Health. [3] In 1943, these two divisions were merged, retaining the name Division of Public Health Methods but being transferred into the Office of the Surgeon General. [2]

In 1946, the Division of Public Health Methods absorbed the Vital Statistics Division, which dated from 1903, from the Bureau of the Census in the Department of Commerce. The merged division was renamed the National Office of Vital Statistics. It was then transferred into the PHS Bureau of State Services in 1949. [2] [4]

In 1960, the National Office of Vital Statistics and the National Health Survey merged to form the National Center for Health Statistics. [5] The National Health Survey had been created within PHS in 1956 through the National Health Survey Act (Pub. L. Tooltip Public Law (United States)  84–652); it was the successor to a seminal national health survey performed by the Works Progress Administration during 1935–1936, which had multiple supplemental studies carried out in the intervening decades. [1]

During the PHS reorganizations of 1966-1973, the National Center for Health Statistics was part of the Health Services and Mental Health Administration (HSMHA), [6] and afterwards was part of the Health Resources Administration. [7] Since 1987, it has been part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [5]

Data collection programs

NCHS collects data with surveys, from other agencies and U.S. states, from administrative sources, and from partnerships with private health partners. NCHS collects data from birth and death records, medical records, interview surveys, and through direct physical examinations and laboratory testing. These diverse sources give perspectives to help understand the U.S. population's health, health outcomes, and influences on health. [8]

There are four major data collection programs at NCHS:

National Vital Statistics System

The National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) collects official vital statistics data based on the collection and registration of birth and death events at the state and local levels. NCHS works in partnership with the vital registration systems in each jurisdiction to produce critical information on such topics as teenage births and birth rates, prenatal care and birth weight, risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes, infant mortality rates, leading causes of death, and life expectancy.[ citation needed ]

National Health Interview Survey

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) provides information on the health status of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population through confidential interviews conducted in households by Census Bureau interviewers. NHIS is the Nation's largest in-person household health survey, providing data on health status, access to and use of health services, health insurance coverage, immunizations, risk factors, and health-related behaviors.[ citation needed ]

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is NCHS's most in-depth and logistically complex survey, operating out of mobile examination centers that travel to randomly selected sites throughout the U.S. to assess the health and nutritional status of Americans. This survey combines personal interviews with standardized physical examinations, diagnostic procedures, and laboratory tests to obtain information about diagnosed and undiagnosed conditions; growth and development, including overweight and obesity; diet and nutrition; risk factors; and environmental exposures.[ citation needed ]

National Health Care Surveys

The National Health Care Surveys provide information about the organizations and providers that supply health care, the services they render, and the patients they serve. Provider sites surveyed include physician offices, community health centers, ambulatory surgery centers, hospital outpatient and emergency departments, inpatient hospital units, residential care facilities, nursing homes, home health care agencies, and hospice organizations. The National Health Care Surveys are used to study resource use, including staffing; quality of care, including patient safety; clinical management of specific conditions; disparities in the use and quality of care; and diffusion of health care technologies, including drugs, surgical procedures, and information technologies.

Other data collection programs

In addition to its major data collection programs, NCHS conducts targeted surveys and augments survey data where possible. NCHS conducts the National Survey of Family Growth to obtain information on factors affecting birth and pregnancy rates, adoptions, and maternal and infant health, and supplements the information obtained on birth certificates collected through the National Vital Statistics System. NCHS's State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS) produces state-level data on such topics as the health of children with special needs, to meet the data needs of its colleagues in HHS's Maternal and Child Health Bureau and elsewhere. NCHS's National Immunization Survey is conducted in collaboration with other CDC offices in Atlanta. NCHS's National Death Index creates a longitudinal component to other routine data systems. NCHS's Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory develops and test survey and data collection instruments for use by NCHS and other federal agencies and research organizations. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</span> United States government public health agency

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is a globally used medical classification used in epidemiology, health management and for clinical purposes. The ICD is maintained by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations System. The ICD is originally designed as a health care classification system, providing a system of diagnostic codes for classifying diseases, including nuanced classifications of a wide variety of signs, symptoms, abnormal findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or disease. This system is designed to map health conditions to corresponding generic categories together with specific variations, assigning for these a designated code, up to six characters long. Thus, major categories are designed to include a set of similar diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Public Health Service</span> Division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health

The United States Public Health Service is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant Secretary for Health oversees the PHS. The Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) is the federal uniformed service of the PHS, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health</span> US federal government agency for work-related health and safety

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Despite its name, it is not part of either the National Institutes of Health nor OSHA. Its current director is John Howard.

Vital statistics is accumulated data gathered on live births, deaths, migration, foetal deaths, marriages and divorces. The most common way of collecting information on these events is through civil registration, an administrative system used by governments to record vital events which occur in their populations. Efforts to improve the quality of vital statistics will therefore be closely related to the development of civil registration systems in countries. Civil registration followed the practice of churches keeping such records since the 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leroy Edgar Burney</span>

Leroy Edgar Burney was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the eighth Surgeon General of the United States from 1956 to 1961.

Public health informatics has been defined as the systematic application of information and computer science and technology to public health practice, research, and learning. It is one of the subdomains of health informatics.

NORC at the University of Chicago is one of the largest independent social research organizations in the United States. Established in 1941 as the National Opinion Research Center, its corporate headquarters is located in downtown Chicago, with offices in several other locations throughout the United States. Organized as an independent corporation, more than half its board comes from faculty and administration of the University of Chicago. It also jointly staffs some of the university's academic research centers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, formed in 1946, is the leading national public health institute of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Its main goal is to protect public health and safety through the control and prevention of disease, injury, and disability in the US and internationally.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a survey research program conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States, and to track changes over time. The survey combines interviews, physical examinations and laboratory tests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obesity in the United States</span> Overview of obesity in the United States of America

Obesity is common in the United States and is a major health issue associated with numerous diseases, specifically an increased risk of certain types of cancer, coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and cardiovascular disease, as well as significant increases in early mortality and economic costs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America's Health Rankings</span>

America's Health Rankings started in 1990 and is the longest-running annual assessment of the nation's health on a state-by-state basis. It is founded on the World Health Organization holistic definition of health, which says health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. America's Health Rankings is a partnership of the United Health Foundation, and the American Public Health Association.

In the United States, the National Malaria Eradication Program (NMEP) was launched in July 1947. By 1951 this federal program—with state and local participation—had reduced the incidence of malaria in the United States to the point that the program was officially ended.

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual, cross-sectional survey intended to provide nationally representative estimates on a wide range of health status and utilization measures among the nonmilitary, noninstitutionalized population of the United States. Each annual data set can be used to examine the disease burden and access to care that individuals and families are currently experiencing in the United States.

The National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) is an inter-governmental system of sharing data on the vital statistics of the population of the United States. It involves coordination between the different state health departments of the US states and the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Global Migration Health</span> U.S. government agency responsible for U.S. Quarantine Stations and issuing quarantine orders

The Division of Global Migration Health (DGMH), formerly the Division of Global Migration and Quarantine is the part of the U.S. government responsible for U.S. Quarantine Stations and issuing quarantine orders. It is part of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The ICD-10 Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) is a set of diagnosis codes used in the United States of America. It was developed by a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, as an adaption of the ICD-10 with authorization from the World Health Organization. In 2015, ICD-10-CM replaced ICD-9-CM as the federally mandated classification. Annual updates are provided.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Public Health Service reorganizations of 1966–1973</span>

Between 1966 and 1973, a series of reorganizations occurred of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The reorganization by 1968 replaced PHS's old bureau structure with two new operating agencies: the Health Services and Mental Health Administration (HSMHA) and the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service (CPEHS). The goal of the reorganizations was to coordinate the previously fragmented divisions to provide a holistic approach to large, overarching problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Division of Industrial Hygiene</span> Former U.S. Public Health Service division

The Division of Industrial Hygiene was a division of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) with responsibility for occupational safety and health programs. It existed from 1914 until 1971, when it became the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). It had several names during its existence, most notably the Office of Industrial Hygiene and Sanitation in its earlier years and the Division of Occupational Health during its later years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bureau of State Services</span> Former U.S. federal government agency

The Bureau of State Services (BSS) was one of three principal operating agencies of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) from 1943 until 1966. The bureau contained the PHS divisions that administered cooperative services to U.S. states through technical and financial assistance, and included significant programs in community health, environmental health, and workforce development.

References

  1. 1 2 "Federal Health Data Sources". Toward a National Health Care Survey: A Data System for the 21st Century. National Research Council. 1992. doi:10.17226/1941. ISBN   978-0-309-04692-3. PMID   25121299.
  2. 1 2 3 "Records of the Public Health Service [PHS], 1912-1968". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  3. Annual report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service of the United States for the fiscal year 1937. 1937. p. 66.
  4. "Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. Division of Vital Statistics. (10/31/1995 - ) Organization Authority Record". U.S. National Archives. Retrieved 2022-05-19.
  5. 1 2 3 About NCHS: Celebrating 50 Years
  6. "Records of the Health Resources and Services Administration [HRSA]". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Section 512.2. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  7. History, mission, and organization of the Public Health Service. U.S. Public Health Service. 1976. pp. 3–4, 20, 22. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  8. Mostly Medicaid.