This exercise asks you to explore several important data sources used in epidemiology research and practice.

• Provide your answers directly beneath each question/task statement.

• If you are unable to find any information for a particular question or task - after you do a comprehensive search - please write "not identified" as your answer.

• Each student will turn in their own exercise.

QUESTIONS:

INTERNATIONAL

1. Visit the World Health Organization (WHO) webpage (http://www.who.int/en).

a. What is the purpose of the WHO's Global Health Observatory (GHO) (http://www.who.int/gho/en)?
b. Visit the GHO Data Repository link (http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.home)

i. Visit the GHO ‘by Country' link.

• Choose a country

a. What is the country?

• Choose an indicator with data that was provided for the country.

. Which indicator did you choose?

a. Define this indicator using the information given on the GHO website (click on the indicator to get the information).
b. How were the data collected on this indicator? See ‘method of measurement' or ‘method of estimation' under indicator if not otherwise provided.
c. Provide and describe any data/statistics given on this indicator for this country.

i. What population(s) do these data represent?
ii. What year(s) do these data represent?
iii. What story do these data/statistics tell about the indicator in this country?

c. Describe something else you found interesting at the WHO GHO website.

d. What are some of the limitations of the GHO data?

NATIONAL

2. Visit the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/).

a. What is the BRFSS and what is its purpose?
b. Who are the participants at the national level? United States residents

i. Describe the study population
ii. Provide sample sizes for the most recent survey year

• What survey year are you describing?

c. How are the participants sampled?
d. How often are the participants sampled?
e. How are the data collected?
f. What kind of data can you obtain from BRFSS?
g. Can you obtain incidence data? Why or why not?
h. What are some of the limitations of these data?

i. Visit the Prevalence & Trends Data section of the BRFSS (http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/brfssprevalence/index.html)
i. Choose a US state.

• Name this state.

ii. Choose a health topic under the tab labeled, "Class."

• What is this class?

iii. For this Class, choose a health topic under the tab labeled, "Topic."

• What is this health topic?

iv. For this Class and Topic, choose the most recent year of data available listed under the tab labeled, "Year."

• What is this year?

v. Provide and interpret the data/statistics given on this Class/Topic/Year for the overall population in your US State.

• Which measure of frequency do the statistics for this Class/Topic/Year represent in the data?

vi. Provide and interpret how the data/statistics on this Class/Topic/Year in your US State differ by gender.

vii. Provide and interpret how the data/statistics on this Class/Topic/Year in your US State differ by education.

viii. Choose a second US state.

• Name this state.

ix. For both US states you have chosen, compare and contrast the data/statistics on the Class/Topic/Year (see ii-iv above) by race/ethnicity. What did you learn from this comparison and contrast?

j. Describe something interesting (not related to the assignment questions) you learned from the BRFSS.

k. What are some of the limitations of the BRFSS data?

NATIONAL/LOCAL

3. Visit the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings and Roadmaps website (http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/).

a. What is the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program and what are its goals?

b. What kind of data can you obtain from the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program?

c. Choose and click on one of the two U.S. states you explored using the BRFSS data.

i. What is this state?
ii. Choose the ‘Measures' Tab
iii. Choose a health-related measure to investigate from the left tab.

• What is this measure?
• Provide the description of this measure (how is it defined?)
• Provide and interpret the available data/statistics about this item.
• What is/are the source/s for these data/statistics?
• What year/years do these data/statistics represent?

d. Describe one interesting health-related measure for ONE COUNTY in the state you explored in part ‘c' above.

• Which county did you explore?
• Which measure did you investigate?
• Provide the description of this measure (how is it defined?)
• Provide and interpret the available data/statistics about this measure for this county.
• What is/are the source/s for these data/statistics?
• What year/years do these data/statistics represent?

e. Choose a second county in the state you explored in part ‘c' above.

i. Which county did you choose?
ii. For both counties you chose to explore in this state, compare and contrast the data/statistics about the health-related measure you investigated in part d. What did you learn from this comparison and contrast?

f. What are some of the limitations of these data/the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program?

EVALUATION

4. Please share any comments you may have about this assignment below. For example, was it a useful exercise? Why or why not? How would you change it to make it more useful?