Category: 1

Teen birth rates drop after two-year increase

A new report from NCHS, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2008,” found that the teen birth rate in the U.S. fell 2 percent between 2007 and 2008, after rising the previous two years. In 2008, the birth rate declined for all age groups under 20 years, except for the youngest teenagers ages 10-14, which remained unchanged Read More >

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More Physicians Switch to Electronic Medical Record Use

The recent report “Electronic Medical Record Use by Office-based Physicians and Their Practices: United States, 2007” presents new information from the 2007 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey regarding the growing use of electronic medical records systems by office-based physicians as well as their plans to install new electronic medical record systems within the next Read More >

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NCHS releases 33rd annual report card on Nation’s health

Each year, NCHS releases a report to Congress and to the President concerning the nation’s health. This report is available to the media and the public, and the 33rd edition, Health United States, 2009, can be found at www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus.htm. Each year the report features a special section, and this year’s focus is the growing use Read More >

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Nearly 1 in 5 School-Aged Children Have Some Kind of Basic Functioning Difficulty

A new report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that children with and without functioning difficulty differ greatly in their use of educational and health care services. This report presents estimates of basic actions difficulty, which includes difficulties related to sensory, motor, cognitive, and emotional or behavioral functioning, in U.S. children aged 5–17 Read More >

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Increase in poisonings from opioid painkillers

NCHS recently released the report titled “Increase in Fatal Poisonings Involving Opioid Analgesics in the United States, 1999-2006.” This report shows the explosion of fatal poisonings from opioid painkillers over the past 7 years. For example, from 1999 through 2006, the number of fatal poisonings involving opioid analgesics more than tripled from 4,000 to 13,800 Read More >

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Louisiana tops homicide, injury by firearms list

In 2006, Louisiana had the highest age-adjusted rate of homicides and injuries by firearms out of all 50 states: Death rate from homicides: 12.8 deaths per 100,000 population Rate of injury by firearms: 19.3 out of 100,000 populuation For the complete listing of states, visit the report. In 2005, Louisiana also topped all 50 states Read More >

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The cost of complementary and alternative medicine

A new report examining the costs of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and visits to CAM practitioners was released by NCHS today, in conjunction with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, part of the National Institutes of Health. The report estimates that– Adults in the U.S. spent $33.9 billion out of pocket on Read More >

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Vaccination coverage does not reach national objectives

Vaccinations are responsible for reducing disease and death; however, vaccinations among certain population subgroups remain low, and national health objectives have not been met. Despite 2010 influenza and pneumococcal vaccination objectives of 90% for adults 65 and over and 60% for younger, high-risk adults, only 66% of the former and 35% of the latter received Read More >

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Who marries when?

Did you know– More woman than men get married before age 40 (86% compared with 81%). Non-Hispanic black men and women aged 25–44 have lower percentages who have ever been married than non-Hispanic white and Hispanic persons of the same age. The probability of first marriage by age 18 is low for both men and Read More >

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Looking for searchable data on children’s health – check out the NSCH

Are you looking for statistics on the health of U.S. children? You may want to check out the site for the National Survey of Children’s Health, a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. You can search the 2007 data set by clicking here. Or, you can find out more about the the Read More >

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Your first-line resource – order or download a copy today.

This past February, NCHS released its annual report on the nation’s health, Health, United States, 2008. This report contained a wealth of information on a wide variety of health topics, as well as a special feature on the health of young adults aged 18-29. This report can serve as a unique resource for reporters, pointing Read More >

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New report examines data from the National Nursing Home Survey

Today, NCHS is releasing “The National Nursing Home Survey: 2004 Overview.” This report examines data from the survey and highlights key findings related to the quality of care, including advance directives, emergency care, and medications taken by nursing home residents. The data highlights include the following: • In 2004, there were 1.7 million nursing home Read More >

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Estimates of Emergency Department Capacity

A new Health E-Stat from the National Center for Health Statistics provides estimates of emergency department (ED) capacity. The role of EDs has expanded over the past few decades from treating seriously ill and injured patients to providing urgent unscheduled care to patients unable to gain timely access to their doctors. As the ED begins Read More >

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National Survey of Family Growth–Key Statistics

The National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) gathers information on family life, marriage and divorce, pregnancy, infertility, use of contraception, and men’s and women’s health. The survey results are used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and others to plan health services and health education programs and to do statistical studies of Read More >

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month

May has been designated Mental Health Awareness Month. Some mental health facts you may not know: More than 1 in 20 Americans aged 12 and over currently have depression (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2006). Over 33,000 suicides occurred in 2006; that’s about 11 deaths per 100,000 population (National Vital Statistics System, 2006). Of Read More >

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International unmarried childbearing trends featured in new report!

Births to unmarried women in the United States totaled 1,714,643 in 2007, 26% more than in 2002. Nearly 4 in 10 U.S. births were to unmarried women in 2007. The United States is not unique nor does it outpace other countries in nonmarital childbearing. For example, well over one half of recent births to Icelandic, Read More >

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Wireless-only phone use continues to boom

Preliminary results from the July-December 2008 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) indicate that the number of American homes with only wireless telephones continues to grow. More than one of every five American homes (20.2%) had only wireless telephones (also known as cellular telephones, cell phones, or mobile phones) during the second half of 2008, an Read More >

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Report released on fetal mortality

Yesterday, the National Center for Health Statistics released the Data Brief “The Challenge of Fetal Mortality.” Key findings include the following:   The magnitude of fetal mortality is considerable: About 1 million fetal deaths occur at any gestational age in the United States each year, including almost 26,000 at 20 weeks of gestation or more. Even Read More >

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Health news you may have missed

The National Center for Health Statistics’ Office of Public Affairs keeps an archive of previously released press releases going back to 1994. The news releases cover the wide range of important and interesting health topics that our data cover. To search these news releases by date or by subject matter, visit the NCHS Press Room and Read More >

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Births–Using the NCHS Vital Stats Tool

  NCHS birth tables with a variety of variables for selection are available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/vitalstats/VitalStatsbirths.htm. By selecting the national or subnational (i.e., state and some county) levels, you can find specific statistics for national, state, and some county birth rates, fertility rates, method of delivery (vaginal or cesarean), length of pregnancy, birthweight, characteristics of the mother Read More >

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How you can use CDC WONDER

Are you interested in finding death statistics? Leading causes of death or specific death rates by age, race, ethnicity, and sex (as well as other selected characteristics) are available in the WONDER database (http://wonder.cdc.gov/). You can utilize this resource to get death rates data, but it also can be used to build tables, charts, and graphs. Several specific Read More >

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NCHS releases new 2008 health insurance data

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) releases quarterly reports on selected health estimates from the National Health Interview Survey that include health insurance coverage across the nation. It also includes topics such as smoking, obesity, and HIV. Today, NCHS released the most recent data, that from January through September 2008. The data showed no Read More >

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New birth statistics released–teen birth rate raises once again

New birth statistics released today by CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveal that the U.S. teen birth rate increased slightly in 2007 for the second straight year. The findings are published in a new report, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2007,” based on analysis of nearly 99% of birth records reported to 50 States Read More >

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Wireless-only phone use varies widely by state

A new study released today by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reveals that Oklahoma is leading the nation’s wireless-only movement, with more than one in four households (26.2%) in that state using only wireless phones in 2007. On the other end of the spectrum, only 5.1% of households in Vermont were wireless-only in Read More >

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Consumer-directed health care–what is it?

Consumer-directed health care enables individuals to have more control over when and how they access care, what types of care they use, and how much they spend on health care services. National attention to consumer-directed health care increased following the enactment of the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, which established tax-advantaged Read More >

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