_Health, United States, 1998_ is the 22nd report on health and disease in the nation submitted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to the President and Congress. Compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the report examines national trends in health and disease statistics. The Highlights section features the...

This week, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released this major report on health in the United States. It is an electronic edition of the annual report which details a variety of health statistics, such as "birth and death rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, morbidity and health status, risk factors, use of ambulatory care and inpatient care, health personnel and facilities,...

The latest report from the government's Healthy People Initiative shows mortality rates down for all targeted age groups, with significant declines in infant mortality rates throughout the nineties and a continuing decline in the mortality rates of those aged 15-24. According to the report, 59% of the objectives for Healthy People, 2000 have been met or are proceeding on schedule. However, "the...

NCHS is the Federal Government's principal vital and health statistics agency. The web site provides "data on vital events as well as information on health status, lifestyle and exposure to unhealthy influences, the onset and diagnosis of illness and disability, and the use of health care." Data available include: tobacco use, life expectancy and long-term illnesses. News releases and fact sheets...

Last month, the NCHS released statistics from its 1997 National Hospital Discharge Survey. The "report presents national estimates of the use of non-Federal, short-stay hospitals in the United States during 1997. Numbers and rates of discharges, diagnoses, and procedures are shown by age and sex." The summary gives average lengths of stays for all discharges, broken down by region, as well as...

Provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this site offers a host of data on inpatients discharged from non-Federal, short-stay hospitals in the US and the use of ambulatory surgery services. These data include patient characteristics (age and sex, patient disposition, expected sources of payment, etc.), admission and discharge dates, and medical information such as...