Tackling Data: Data and Surveillance Sources
The following reliable data sources provide a variety of health information on the local, state, or national level. These sources can be useful for grant writing, community health assessments, and much more. Check out the resources below!
Iowa Department of Public Health Tracking Portal
The Iowa Public Health Tracking Portal serves as a centralized source for public health data, resulting in:
- Improved public health decision making: Take advantage of high quality, accessible data and decision support tools.
- Healthier Iowans in healthier communities: Use data to perform thorough community health needs assessments and to create and implement impactful health improvement plans.
- Increased opportunities for funding: Use data to support grant applications and ensure secured funds are used on programs that provide the most value to Iowans.
- Better use of time and resources: Spend less time searching for data and more time using the data for valuable activities.
The Iowa Public Health Tracking program was initiated from a grant awarded to the Division of Environmental Health, which resulted in the creation of the Environmental Public Health Tracking (EPHT) Program. The initiative is supported by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and has been already carried out in 22 other states.”
Description obtained from https://tracking.idph.iowa.gov/
Iowa Health Fact Book
The Iowa Health Fact Book provides demographics, disease incidence, mortality, determinants of health, and health resources for all 99 counties in Iowa, when possible. This is produced as a collaboration between the University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa Department of Public Health, and interested partners.
Healthy Iowans
Healthy Iowans is the state health improvement plan originating from a statewide needs assessment. It provides current statewide data for a wide range of health related items, as well as providing future goals. This can be a useful framework for writing grants and improvement plans to corresponds to Iowa’s health agenda.
County Health Rankings
“The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The annual County Health Rankings measure vital health factors, including high school graduation rates, obesity, smoking, unemployment, access to healthy foods, the quality of air and water, income inequality, and teen births in nearly every county in America. The annual Rankings provide a revealing snapshot of how health is influenced by where we live, learn, work and play. They provide a starting point for change in communities. That is why we also provide the Roadmaps that provide guidance and tools to understand the data, and strategies that communities can use to move into action.”
Other Resources
Please check back soon for more data and surveillance resources!