A Larger Perspective

COPD Surveillance—United States, 1999-2011

Measuring scholarly use of government information: An altmetrics analysis of federal statistics

IN THE UNITED STATES, unlike in many otlher countries, all Federal Government statistical activities are not centralized in one statistics bureau. Rather, these activities have developed in a decentralized pattern, with different agencies responsible for the collectiont and analysis of statistical data in particular areas. However, a central statistical office insures that these various activities are properly integrated and prevents duplication. This is a function of the Office of Statistical Standards in the BIureau of the Budget, located, of course, in the Executive Office of the President. The Office of Statistical Standards develops and enforces some standards for the quality and comparability of data produced by Governmenit agencies; it coordinates efforts and attempts to avoid duplication and to minimize reporting burdens. But the development and the conduct of statistical prog,rams and activities lie almost completely within the separate agencies. I do not intend to deal in detail with the extremely broad and varied field of Federal Government statistics. The Budget Bureau publislhes a directory of statisticians in the Federal service, a useful 200-page. reference book. However, a categorization of these activities will provide a setting for my desoription of the Health Examination Survey. The Budget Bureau has prepared a chart that groups together more than a score of agencies which have im)ortant statistical programs but which collect statistical information primarily as part of their administrative and operating responsibilities. An example of this category is the statistical program of the Internal Revenue Service, which is incidental to its work-collection of taxes. The second category groups eight agencies having major interest in using, analyzing, and interpreting statistical data, largely, though not entirely, collected by other agencies. An example of one of these user groups is the Council of Economic Advisers. The third category consists of general-purpose statistical agencies; those charged with collecting, compiling, analyzing, and publishing statistical data for general use. There are four such agencies, each dealing with a particular field. The Statistical Reporting Service, Department of Agriculture, deals with crop statistics, including livestock production, farmers' prices (paid and received), and farm employment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, deals with statistics on the labor force, employment earnings, productivity, and the like. The Bureau of the Census, Commerce Department, is responsible for censuses of and current statistics on population, housing, and a variety of other subjects. Finally, the newest of the general-purpose statistical agencies is the National Center for Health Statistics. This center collects, compiles, analyzes, and publishes statistics on morbidity; health care; demographic, economic, and social factors related to health; and births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. The foregoing detail is presented, not out of bureaucratic fondness for organization charts, but because it relates to a fundamental and sigMr. McDowell is chief of the Division of Health Examination Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, Public Health Service. This paper is an extension of his address to the joint meeting of the biostatistics section of the New York City Chapter of the American Statistical Association and the New York City Chapter of the American Public Health Association, March 25, 1965.

The limited availability of Hispanic health data has hampered the development of targeted public health policies. Hispanics represent 11.5 percent of the population and are projected to become the largest minority group in the United States by the year 2010. This paper explores current issues in Hispanic health data collection, examines methodological concerns, and presents recommendations for future Hispanic public health data collection. Data are derived from statistical reports of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, National Center for Health Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other empirical studies. Recommendations include: collecting both race and ethnic-specific data by Hispanic subgroup, designing appropriate data collection instruments and approaches, and selecting referent groups for comparison purposes. The authors conclude that the renewed national focus on health disparities among underserved populations requires an increased commitment to adequately identify Hispanic subgroups.

Advancements in survey methodology make it possible to conduct targeted surveys that are responsive to the problems. However, it is extremely difficult to modify federal surveys, the traditional source of policy relevant data on rural needs, so that timely, targeted surveys can be accomplished. The Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, National Center for Educational Statistics, and National Agricultural Statistics Service are among the organizations devoted to collecting and analyzing data that are relevant to rural areas of the United States. The emerging data needs of rural America are quite different than those which the nation's federal data system is capable of providing. Federal agencies have considerable inertia, well protected by interest groups, that may prevent discontinuing the collection of data on some topics so that the resources can be devoted to other topics.

ObjectiveTo estimate county‐level associations between in utero exposure to threatened evictions and preterm birth in the United States.Data SourcesComplete birth records were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics (2009‐2016). Threatened evictions were measured at the county level using eviction case filing data obtained from The Eviction Lab (2008‐2016). Additional economic and demographic data were obtained from the United States Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics.Study DesignWe conducted a retrospective cohort analysis using 7.3 million births from 1,633 counties. We defined threatened eviction exposures as the z‐score of average case filings over the pregnancy and by trimester. Our primary outcome was an indicator for preterm birth (born < 37 completed weeks of gestation). Secondary outcomes included a continuous measure for gestational length, a continuous measure for birth weight, and an indicator for low birth weight (born < 2500 g). We estimated within‐county associations controlling for individual‐ and time‐varying county‐level characteristics, state‐of‐residence‐year‐and‐month‐of‐conception fixed effects, and a county‐specific time trend.Data Collection/ExtractionWe merged birth records with threatened eviction data at the county‐month‐year level using mother's county of residence at delivery and month‐year of conception. We supplemented these data with information on county‐level annual 18‐and‐over population, annual poverty rate, and monthly unemployment rate.Principal FindingsIncreased levels of eviction case filings over a pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of prematurity and low birth weight. These associations appeared to be sensitive to exposure in the second and third trimesters. Associations with secondary outcomes and within various population subgroups were, in general, imprecisely estimated.ConclusionsHigher exposure to eviction case filings within counties, particularly in the latter stages of a pregnancy, was associated with an increased risk of adverse birth outcomes. Future research should identify the causal effect of threatened evictions on maternal and child health outcomes.

Research on terrestrial tundra ecosystems of northern Alaska has been directly and indirectly linked to social and economic interests since World War II (Washburn and Weller 1986). The discovery of large petroleum reserves (Energy Resource Map of Alaska 1977) made it clear that compromises would have to be made to satisfy both economic demands and environmental concerns. This led to the specific recommendations made by the National Research Council (NRC) committee on ecological research priorities for the Arctic (NAS 1982) and the subsequent implementation of the R4D program by the Department of Energy (DOE) at the Imnavait Creek watershed near Toolik Lake, Alaska (Fig. 1.1, this Vol.). The series of recommendations — and expected benefits — made by the NRC committee (Chap. 1, this Vol.) are reviewed here in the context of R4D results (italics indicate a direct paraphrasing of the recommendations).

Recent research on acid precipitation yields “increasing general concern about possible effects on forests,” according to the second annual report of the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). Prepared by the Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation, the report outlines the accomplishments of the national program during fiscal 1983, summarizes the current state of scientific knowledge (including a change in the baseline acidity of precipitation), and describes the outlook for current progress by federally funded acid precipitation research. Chris Bernabo is the program's executive director.NAPAP's annual report agrees with the finding of a National Research Council (NRC) committee that a linear relationship exists between sulfur dioxide emissions and wet deposition of sulfate (Eos, July 26, 1983, p. 475). NRC's Committee on Atmospheric Transport and Chemical Transformation in Acid Precipitation, which issued its report last year, was chaired by Jack G. Calvert of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The Administration for Community Living (ACL), through its Administration on Aging, released updated demographics for the US population aged 65 years or older. Data were sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the US Census Bureau.

Beyond Dueling Models: Commentary Responding to: Guralnik JM, Ferrucci L. The Challenge of Understanding the Disablement Process in Older Persons and Freedman V. Adopting the ICF Language for Studying Late-life Disability: A Field of Dreams?

Solid organ donation after death in the United States: Data-driven messaging to encourage potential donors.

Energy technology R&D is a cornerstone of U.S. energy policy. Understanding the potential for energy technology R&D to solve the nation's energy problems is critical to formulating a successful R&D program. In light of this, the U.S. Congress requested the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake both retrospective and prospective assessments of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Energy Efficiency and Fossil Energy Research programs (NRC, 2001; NRC, 2005). ("The Congress continued to express its interest in R&D benefits assessment by providing funds for the NRC to build on the retrospective methodology to develop a methodology for assessing prospective benefits." NRC, 2005, p. ES-2) In 2004, the NRC Committee on Prospective Benefits of DOE's Energy Efficiency and Fossil Energy R&D Programs published a report recommending a new framework and principles for prospective benefits assessment. The Committee explicitly deferred the issue of estimating security benefits to future work. Recognizing the need for a rigorous framework for assessing the energy security benefits of its R&D programs, the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) developed a framework and approach for defining energy security metrics for R&D programs to use in gauging the energy security benefits of their programs (Lee, 2005). This report describes methods for estimating the prospective oil security benefits of EERE's R&D programs that are consistent with the methodologies of the NRC (2005) Committee and that build on Lee's (2005) framework. Its objective is to define and implement a method that makes use of the NRC's typology of prospective benefits and methodological framework, satisfies the NRC's criteria for prospective benefits evaluation, and permits measurement of that portion of the prospective energy security benefits of EERE's R&D portfolio related to oil. While the Oil Security Metrics (OSM) methodology described in this report has been specifically developed to estimate the prospective oil security benefits of DOE's R&D programs, it is also applicable to other strategies and policies aimed at changing U.S. petroleum demand.

In 1998 Congress mandated expanded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) health effects research on ambient air particulate matter (PM) and a National Research Council (NRC) committee to provide research oversight. The U.S. EPA currently supports intramural and extramural PM research, including five academically based PM centers. The PM centers in their first 2.5 years have initiated research directed at critical issues identified by the NRC committee, including collaborative activities, and sponsored scientific workshops in key research areas. Through these activities, there is a better understanding of PM health effects and scientific uncertainties. Future PM centers research will focus on long-term effects associated with chronic PM exposures. This report provides a synopsis of accomplishments to date, short-term goals (during the next 2.5 years) and longer-term goals. It consists of six sections: biological mechanisms, acute effects, chronic effects, dosimetry, exposure assessment, and the specific attributes of a coordinated PM centers program.

In Memoriam: Paul J. Lioy

Health in 2020 and beyond: what do the numbers tell us?