The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) is the principal health statistics agency in the U.S. Its mission is to provide statistical information that can be used to guide actions and policies to improve the health of the American people. NCHS conducts several population-based and health-care establishment surveys that allow the publication of widely-used, reliable statistics on the health status of the U.S. population and selected subgroups.
While the health surveys offer a rich source of data that can be used to address a variety of health-related topics, there are many questions that cannot answered with survey data alone. However, when these data are linked with vital records or administrative data, analysts can gain insight into outcomes such as mortality or health care utilization. Through its data linkage program, NCHS links its health survey data with vital records and administrative data sources. These linkages enhance the analytic capabilities of the health surveys and produce rich data sources that can be used to inform health policy research. This talk will describe the NCHS Data Linkage Program and how the linked data have been used to inform policy research.
|