Project Newsletter Iowa Public Health Tracking, February 2014

The IDPH Public Health Tracking Program is an excellent way to collect data related to various indicators for Iowans, but those looking for national statistics or data from other states may want to check out the Health Indicators Warehouse (healthindicators.gov). Run and maintained by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, this site is a centralized source for national, state, and county data for a wide variety of indicators. The data is available to the public, and can be accessed either through the tables and charts directly on the website, or indicators can be downloaded to use in a spreadsheet. Once on the site, users are able to search for their desired data either by topic or geographic region. Filters can then be applied to the chosen field to narrow down the user’s search and obtain the preferred statistics. In addition, users are also able to search for indicators derived from state and federal health indicator initiatives: County Health Rankings, Community Health Status Indicators, Healthy People 2020, and CMS Community Indicators. The warehouse provides an overview of each indicator after the user has made their selection. This overview includes information on how the data was calculated and what characteristics are being represented. For example, percent of binge drinking adults is prefaced in the overview that data was based on the question: “Considering all types of alcoholic beverages, how many times during the past 30 days did you have [5 for men, 4 for women] or more drinks on an occasion?" Data is viewable either in the basic table format, chart format, or for some indicators it is possible to view it in terms of a national map. The Health Indicators Warehouse updates indicators as data becomes available, but the collection of years varies amongst the indicators. Nonetheless, this site is a useful resource to anyone looking for comparative indicators throughout the nation or is interested in one of the hundreds of indicators housed by the site. For more information or to check out what the warehouse has to offer visit: http://healthindicators.gov/

Soil Tracking Paint Test, MLR-89-13, 1989

A new paint testing device was built to determine the resistance of paints to darkening due to road grime being tracked onto them. The device consists of a tire rotating on a sample drum. Soil was applied to the tire and then tracked onto paint samples which were attached to the drum. A colorimeter was used to measure the lightness of the paints after being tracked. Lightness is measured from 0 (absolute black) to 100 (absolute white). Four experiments were run to determine the optimum time length to track a sample, the reproducibility, the effects of different soils, and the maximum acceptable level for darkening of a paint. The following conclusions were reached: 1) the optimum tracking time was 10 minutes; 2) the reproducibility had a standard deviation of 1.5 lightness units; 3) different soils did not have a large effect on the amount of darkening on the paints; 4) a maximum acceptable darkness could not be established based on the limited amount of data; and 5) a correlation exists between the paints which were darkening in the field and the paints which were turning the darkest on the tracking wheel.

Project Newsletter Iowa Public Health Tracking, May 2014

The IDPH Public Health Tracking Program is an excellent way to collect data related to various indicators for Iowans, but those looking for national statistics or data from other states may want to check out the Health Indicators Warehouse (healthindicators.gov). Run and maintained by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, this site is a centralized source for national, state, and county data for a wide variety of indicators. The data is available to the public, and can be accessed either through the tables and charts directly on the website, or indicators can be downloaded to use in a spreadsheet. Once on the site, users are able to search for their desired data either by topic or geographic region. Filters can then be applied to the chosen field to narrow down the user’s search and obtain the preferred statistics. In addition, users are also able to search for indicators derived from state and federal health indicator initiatives: County Health Rankings, Community Health Status Indicators, Healthy People 2020, and CMS Community Indicators. The warehouse provides an overview of each indicator after the user has made their selection. This overview includes information on how the data was calculated and what characteristics are being represented. For example, percent of binge drinking adults is prefaced in the overview that data was based on the question: “Considering all types of alcoholic beverages, how many times during the past 30 days did you have [5 for men, 4 for women] or more drinks on an occasion?" Data is viewable either in the basic table format, chart format, or for some indicators it is possible to view it in terms of a national map. The Health Indicators Warehouse updates indicators as data becomes available, but the collection of years varies amongst the indicators. Nonetheless, this site is a useful resource to anyone looking for comparative indicators throughout the nation or is interested in one of the hundreds of indicators housed by the site. For more information or to check out what the warehouse has to offer visit: http://healthindicators.gov/