Health Data

This Design for Health (DFH) section provides tools on how to access information about health within your community as well on how to measure the effects that the built environment has on certain health issues.

DFH Materials

Health Impact Assessments (HIA)
This series offers a variety of HIA tools to identify and evaluate the effects of policies, plans, programs, and design on health. These can be specifically tailored to consider the needs of specialized populations.
Key Questions Research Summaries
This series provides short and digestible summaries about what research says and doesn't say on topics relevant to the comprehensive planning process
Comprehensive Plan Review Checklists
These checklists summarize the key points of the DFH background and health impact assessment materials. Topics match the plan elements required by the Twin Cities Metropolitan Council.
Transportation, Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan Checklist
This checklist for transportation, pedestrian and bicycle plans can be used to evaluate how well health has been incorporated and helps to identify additional opportunities to incorporate health into these plans.

Information Sources for Health

The following Web sites are some of the resources available for finding health statistics and facilities information.

Health Statistics

Minnesota Department of Health
The department has a wide range of statistics including:
- Vital Statistics State and Trends
  This site includes an instruction document and a highly formatted excel workbook of basic demographic data, birth data (including premature births, prenatal case, infant deaths), and death data (major causes, age-adjusted rates, ethnic breakdown).
- Minnesota County Health Tables
  These tables contain data on demographics; births and related infant health issues; deaths and causes of death; diseases, medical professionals, and health-related behaviors (under morbidity and utilization as well as under chemical health); and environmental health (e.g., lead poisoning). Diseases range from mumps to Lyme disease and lung cancer; behaviors include seat-belt use and driving under the influence.
- Fee-based Statistical Requests
  For a fee, the Center for Health Statistics will fulfill specific requests pertaining to state and county vital statistics data not readily available in the Center's Minnesota Health Statistics Annual Summary or Minnesota County Health Tables.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The CDC has a wealth of information including some statistics:
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)
  This is a national survey of a variety of health-related behaviors with data available down to the county level in many metropolitan areas. The SMART (Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends) project is particularly useful and provides access to BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) responses for the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Statistical Area, as well as for Hennepin and Ramsey counties separately. Data are available for 2002-05.
  - GIS Shape Files:
    BRFSS maps of downloadable GIS data provided for metropolitan areas and states.
- The National Center for Health Statistics
  This site has a wealth of health data. The most readily accessible statistics are at the state level.

Health Facilities

Medicare
Medicare provides a searchable database of nursing homes. It is searchable in several ways. Search features include zip code, city, and various radii around a city (up to 500 miles). For example, if one searches for nursing homes within 10 miles of Bloomington, Minnesota, the database delivers 43 facilities.

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