SJSU Research Guides: Packaging: Statistics/Gov. information

Current Health Issues

Santa Clara County Health Profile, 2010 - statistics on chronic illnesses; mortality; socio-economic issues.

Health care: the bill, the debates, etc. (March 23, 2010)

H.R. 3200 America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 Includes all Congressional discussions, bill history for President Obama's health care legislation.

Reality Check - Health Insurance Reform -- from the White House -- this site reviews criticism of the health care reform.

Health Reform - reports, forums, statistics are given regarding the health care reform proposed by the Obama administration.

Flu.gov - comprehensive site that has reports; maps showing flu outbreaks; ask for flu information, faqs, etc

National HIV/AIDS Strategy - reports, references, and strategic plan developed at the White House to combat the HIV/AIDS disease.

Community Nutrition Mapping Project - is an application that combines and aggregates food and nutrition indicators at the state and national level. CNMap is divided into five major categories: nutrient intakes, healthy eating patterns, physical activity and body weight indicators, food security indicators, and demographics.

Food Environment Atlas - USDA - Food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. Research is beginning to document the complexity of these interactions, but more is needed to identify causal relationships and effective policy interventions.

Agencies and Statistic Information

Helpful government websites for researching minority health, health disparities, and health-related statistics. See also Government Information Libguide

National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
The mission of the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) is to promote minority health and to lead, coordinate, support, and assess the NIH effort to reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities. In this effort NCMHD will conduct and support basic, clinical, social, and behavioral research, promote research infrastructure and training, foster emerging programs, disseminate information, and reach out to minority and other health disparity communities.
National Center for Health Statistics
This website contains searchable statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.
National Center for Health Statistics Faststats
The FastStats site provides quick access to statistics on topics of public health importance and is organized alphabetically. Links are provided to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.
FedStats
This a gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies, including those related to health, demographics, and the environment.

Basic Websites For Nutrition and Food Science

Agricola This link opens in a new window
References to information on agriculture and allied disciplines, including food & nutrition, entomology, plant sciences, aquaculture, agricultural economics, earth and environmental sciences.

Agriculture Fact Book (USDA Publications)
Chapters on nutrition, food safety, what Americans eat, food prices and distribution. Online editions 2002, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996. Also available in print (A1.38/2) in Government Publications.
Food Safety and Inspection Service
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
MedTerms.com Medical Dictionary
(MedicineNet.com) Dictionary includes standard medical terms; also scientific items, abbreviations, acronyms, jargon, institutions, projects, symptoms, syndromes, eponyms, medical history -- all having to do with medicine and the biomedical sciences.
Merck Manual of Medical Information--Home Edition
Textbook of medicine widely used by health care professionals; information on disease, diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Also available in print.
National Academy Press
Provide "full books, free for the reading, first page to last" - over 1000 titles. Available in a variety of formats. Use "Browse Categories" to find what they have on nutrition.
National Center for Health Statistics (Centers for Disease Control)
Data on vital events; information on health status, lifestyle, and exposure to unhealthy influences, the onset and diagnosis of illness and disability; the use of health care.
Nutrient Data Laboratory: USDA Food Composition Data
Provides data on 6,661 foods for up to 125 nutrients and food components. View the data here or download the data files and documentation for use on your computer; look up the nutrient content of different foods directly from this home page.
Nutrition Analysis Tools for Good Health (University of Illinois)
NAT is a free program. It allows you to do a nutritional analysis on a wide variety of foods, within the limitations of the data (see the site). The database used by NAT is composed of the USDA Handbook #8 and information from food companies.
Publications - Economic Research Service (USDA)
Full text, detailed reports on a wide variety of topics relevant for nutrition and food science research, including "Diet, Consumption, &Health," "Food &Nutrition Assistance Programs," and "Food Safety.
TiLE.NET: The comprehensive Internet reference
Find here electronic mailing lists on food, nutrition and packaging.
What we Eat in America: Food Surveys Research Group
USDA food surveys.