Effective Employee Health and Wellness Programs include the use of data sources in support of Employee Health and Wellness Program planning, implementation, and evaluation. Information sources can be used to complete a community needs assessment, develop realistic Employee Health and Wellness Program goals and objectives, and gain Senior Management support.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Information and statistics
• http://www.cdc.gov/DataStatistics/
• Information and statistics are available by topic (i.e., asthma, injuries, MRSA).
• Information access tools are available to customize data tables and query datasets (i.e., Healthy People DATA2010, smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs).
• Nationwide survey data is available (i.e., National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)).
CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
• http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.htm
• BRFSS is the world’s largest, ongoing telephone health survey system. BRFSS has been tracking health conditions and risk behaviors in the US yearly since 1984.
• Chronic Disease Indicators are divided into seven categories: physical activity and nutrition, tobacco and alcohol use, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, overarching conditions, and other disease and risk factors.
• Prevalence data is also available (i.e., weight classification by Body Mass Index and age).
