Health-Related Data Sources Accessible to Health Researchers From the US Government: Mapping Review.

Area of Science:

• Public Health Data Science
• Health Services Research
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Large-scale government surveys offer valuable population-based health data for research.
• Navigating and utilizing these national data sources presents significant challenges for researchers.
• Limited guidance exists on accessing and evaluating federally sponsored health data.

Approach:

• Conducted a systematic mapping review of federally sponsored, health-related data sources.
• Included public domain data with active or recent (10-year) data collection on US populations.
• Extracted key measures: sponsor, purpose, population, design, sample size, methodology, data type, and cost.

Key Points:

• Identified 57 unique, publicly accessible federal health data sources.
• Classified data into survey, trends, summative processed, primary registry, and evaluative types.
• Data covers individuals, providers, and health systems, including demographics, clinical information, behaviors, and costs.
• Most data sets (75%) were available at no cost.

Conclusions:

• Extensive national health data is available for secondary analysis, reducing primary data collection burden.
• Inconsistent data standardization across government entities necessitates improvements in data consistency.
• Secondary analysis of national data offers a feasible and cost-effective approach to addressing national health concerns.