Data & Surveillance

What is public health surveillance?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines public health surveillance as “the ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of data regarding a health-related event for use in public health action to reduce morbidity and mortality and to improve health.” 5

Information from public health surveillance systems is used for activities ranging from immediate public health action, program planning and evaluation, or making decisions about where additional health research is needed.

In New Hampshire, the asthma surveillance system includes information about: the proportion of the population with asthma (prevalence), the demographic characteristics of the portion of the population with asthma and the impact of asthma on people, productivity and the health care system (the asthma burden).

Asthma Data Resources

Reports and Issue Briefs

Asthma Prevalence and Incidence in New Hampshire (February 2010)

Asthma Control, Management and Quality of Life (February 2012)

Risk Factors for Asthma and Co-Morbidities (June 2010)

Utilization of Health Care Services for Asthma in NH (November 2010)

Asthma and the Environment (August 2012)

Asthma Mortality (March 2010)

New Hampshire Asthma Data Resources

NH Asthma Control Program (NHACP)

New Hampshire Health Web Reporting and Query System (NH HealthWRQS)

NH Comprehensive Health Care Information System

Health Data Integration Network (EHDIN) - from the New Hampshire Environmental Health Tracking Program

National Asthma Data Resources

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

BRFSS Asthma Callback Survey

CDC National Asthma Program

Other State Asthma Programs Data and Asthma Burden Reports



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Graph, from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, depicting NH adults reporting that they had current asthma. X axis shows Percent from zero to twenty-five. Y axis shows years from 2000 to 2010. Data shows a line for NH and one for the national rate. Both show modest increase with NH displaying rates above the national. Data points: from 2000 to 2003 NH rates hovered around 8 percent and the national rate around 7 percent. From 2004 to 2010 NH hovered around 10 percent while the national rate hovered around 8 percent.

New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of asthma in the nation. Source: CDC, BRFSS

 

Footnotes

4 NH Mortality Data, New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Public Health Statistics and Informatics, Health Statistics and Data Management Section and the New Hampshire, Department of State, Division of Vital Records Administration, 2007.

5 Updated Guidelines for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems, Recommendations from the Guidelines Working Group

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