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U.S. Government Resources

There are a number of public health resources at the federal level. These are good for generating ideas, viewing national trends and (in some cases) getting detailed local statistics.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deals with all types of public health concerns. It's well worth browsing the site. For a quick shortcut to the numbers, look at the 'Data & Statistics' section just in the center of the screen. A lot of these statistics are compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

One example of the sheer amount of data collected by the latter is NCHS Surveys & Data. You can examine these more closely by trying the following:

• Select 'NHIS National Health Interview Survey'
• Under "Reports" select 'Vital and Health statistics ... Series 10'
• The report 'Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults' has Hearing and Vision tables 11 & 12.

You will find a copy of this in the Library's Reference Collection at  RA407.3 .A346 no. 232.

Healthy People 2010

Another project of the CDC is Healthy People 2010. The Healthy People program is an ambitious set of health objectives designed for use by states, professional organizations and others. Priorities for vision care (along with some nice statistics about current problems) can be found in the main report, especially Chapter 28: Vision and Hearing. More details about definitions and sources can be found in the vision section of the larger document, Tracking Healthy People 2010. Healthy People 2010 Midcourse Review is now available, discussing the progress made toward the objectives.

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