The Database of Online Health Statistics: a new search tool

Abstract

Health statistics are notoriously difficult to locate, even for the most competent health librarians. However, as statistics often play a vital role in healthcare policy, planning, services, and evaluation, finding them is a necessity. This article reviews the difficulties in finding health statistics and describes the creation of the Database of Online Health Statistics at the Institute of Health Economics in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This resource was designed to simplify the search for statistics by librarians and the general public. For decades, the hunt for health statistics has been described as a frustrating and (or) feared task by the general public and information specialists alike [1–5]. The challenges involved are numerous. Government agencies, international organizations, associations, research institutes, corporations, universities, and interest groups, among others, all generate health statistics. However, access provided by these groups differs. Governments often make the statistics they gather freely available on the Internet and researchers publish their figures within journal articles, whereas corporations may not provide public access at all. This plethora of creators and publication methods, coupled with the lack of a central location to house the statistics, often makes finding a particular figure difficult. The format of the publications may create impediments; a statistic may be represented by one or more sentences buried within an article or report. The searcher must then know what terminology to use to locate the numerical data within the document. Alternatively, the statistics could be featured in image formats such as figures or tables, which often precludes searching within them [5]. New technologies, such as geographical information systems (GIS), are being employed to provide the public with interactive graphical displays of datasets generated in real-time that, while useful for manipulating variables to get at the statistics one desires, prohibit searching via online search engines [1]. Also, drop-down menus are not crawled by search engines, and are often of broad categories rather than the specific variables of interest. The various creators of statistics also use different terminology, definitions, collection and analytical methods, and date ranges for their data collection, making comparisons complicated [1]. This leads to fragmentation of data, and thus the need to look in multiple places to find answers to different elements of the same question. Many countries have national statistical agencies that serve as repositories for statistical publications. While many provide free access via websites to these statistics, their sites are often difficult to navigate. Coverage is also inconsistent as not all countries, states, or provinces are represented. The information specialist has the additional challenge of trying to interpret the patron’s request. Reference queries are not always expressed clearly at the best of times, so when the confusing world of statistics is thrown in, the patron’s needs often become even less apparent. The National Library of Medicine’s tutorial Finding and Using Health Statistics [6] and the book Introduction to Reference Sources in the Health Sciences [7] provide useful tips for the reference librarian in assessing needs and formulating a search strategy. Finally, librarians or information specialists are rarely asked to find the same statistics more than once, so it is difficult to gain confidence, knowledge of specific resources, and subject mastery in this area.