This guide is meant to help you get started finding resources related to Public Health. This is a huge area of study, encompassing topics as far ranging as environmental health, diseases and epidemiology, emergency management, food and nutition, health policy and administration, law, and the study of health behvaviors in particular populations or groups. The set of external resources collected here owes a great deal to guides shared by the health sciences libraries at Oregon State University, UC Berkeley, and the University of Washington.
The following books are part of OCOM's print collection. Our PAHL consortium partners may offer a wider selection of books in this topic area—particularly OHSU, since it is home to the Oregon Master of Public Health program.You can easily access consortium materials by placing a PAHL borrowing request, so be sure to extend your catalog search by clicking on the "OCOM" dropdown menu and selecting "OCOM + PAHL." This will show you materials from OHSU, NUNM, and UWS Library collections in addition to our own.
- Basic environmental health by Annalee Yassi (WA 670 Y26b 2001)
- Clinical epidemiology : the essentials by by Robert Fletcher and Suzanne Fletcher (WA 105 F614c 2014)
- Control of communicable diseases manual by David L. Heymann (Reference - WC 100 H618c 2008)
- Cultural care: guides to heritage assessment and health traditions by Rachel E. Spector (WA 30 Sp32c 2000)
- Epidemiology : an introduction by Kenneth Rothman (WA 105 R846e 2012)
- Epidemiology in medicine by Charles H. Hennekens et al. (WA 105 H391e 1987)
- Evidence-based public health practice by Arlene Fink (WB 102 F499e 2013)
- Health care disparities and the LGBT population edited by Vickie L. Harvey and Teresa Heinz Housel (WA 300 H434 2014)
- Health care in America: a history by John C. Burnham (WZ 70 AA1 B966h 2015)
- Introduction to modern epidemiology by Anders Ahlbom and Staffan Norell (WA 105 Ah46i 1990)
- A history of public health by George Rosen (WA 11.1 R813h 2015)
- Measuring health: a guide to rating scales and questionnaires by Ian McDowell and Claire Newell (WA 900.1 M148m 1996)
- Medical transitions in twentieth-century China edited by Bridie Andrews and Mary Brown Bullock (WZ 70 JC6 M489 201)
- Medicine across cultures : history and practice of medicine in non-Western cultures by Helaine Selin (WZ 80 M489 2003)
- Portrait of health in the United States by Daniel Melnick (Reference - WA 16 P838o 2001)
- Principles of biostatistics by Marcello Pagano and Kimberlee Gauvreau (WA 950 P131p 2000)
- Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine: policy and public health perspectives by Gerard Bodeker and Gemma Burford (WA 525 B66t 2007)
- Sickness and health in America: readings in the history of medicine and public health by Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L Numbers (WZ 70 AA1 S48s 1985)
- Understanding health policy: a clinical approach by Thomas Bodenheimer and Kevin Grumbach (WA 540 AA1 B666u 2009)
- Veteran suicide: a public health imperative by Robert Bossarte (WM 184 V585 2013)
These databases all contain content related to public health topics, but some contain more material than others and some are more historical than current. Look for options like Subjects, Subject Terms, or Subject Guides to explore how public health sub-topics are organized in a particular database.
Search tip: You can search all EBSCO databases together or all Gale databases together instead of searching each EBSCO or Gale database individually.
Governmental organizations are excellent sources of data related to public health, so many of the following resources originate from national or international agencies and bureaus. There are so many resources available that this list barely scratches the surface!
ADAI Library This collection at the University of Washington covers research and scientific literature on alcohol and other drug use from all relevant disciplines, including medicine, nursing, social work, criminal justice, sociology, and psychology.
CDC - Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Established in 1984, the BRFSS is a system of health-related telephone surveys that collects data from more than more than 400,000 US adults each year regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services.
CDC - Data and Statistics On this page, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presents data and statistics organized by health topic and collects links to other tools and resources.
CDC - FastStats FastStats provides quick access to statistics on public health topics in the form of links to publications that include the statistics presented, to sources of more data, and to related web pages.
CDC - Health United States, 2015 Health, United States is an annual report on trends in health statistics. As of April 2017, their 2015 report is the most current.
CDC - National Center for Health Statistics This landing page is a good starting point for accessing health statistics. Other notable components are Stat of the Day, NCHS Fact Sheets, and the calendar and archives of statistical products and reports.
CDC - Podcasts The CDC podcasts often tackle timely topics and some are released in Spanish.
CDC - WONDER Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research is a menu-driven system that makes CDC information resources available to public health professionals and the public at large.
Healthy People DATA2020 This interactive data tool allows users to explore data and technical information related to objectives of Healthy People 2020, a program of the US Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) IHME is an independent population health research center at the University of Washington that investigates and publishes research on population health and the performance of health systems.
IHME Global Health Data Exchange IHME's global catalog of surveys, censuses, vital statistics, and other health data.
Kaiser Family Foundation This independent nonprofit researches and provides analysis on a number of US health issues, including insurance coverage and population health disparities, as well as the US role in global health policy. The site includes a state health facts portal and a number of multimedia resources, including charts, slides, and infographics.
NIH - National Cancer Institute - Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) The SEER program from the National Cancer Institute provides information on cancer statistics. Note the Cancer Stat Facts box for quick access to statistics by type of cancer, and the Fast Stats box for instantly generated tables and graphics.
Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce This collaboration among US government agencies, public health organizations, and health sciences libraries collates news and data in several public health topic areas.
SSDAN CensusScope CensusScope is a tool developed by the Social Science Data Analysis Network at the University of Michigan. It includes graphics and exportable trend data based on the decennial census.
State of Oregon - Public Health Division Our state's Public Health Division provides information and data on various public health topics from an Oregon perspective. Their directory also lists all programs run by the division, from Acute and Communicable Disease Prevention to Youth Suicide Prevention.
State of Oregon - Center for Health Statistics (Vital Records) The Health Statistics unit compiles and analyzes data from Oregon's vital records (births, marriages, divorces, and deaths).
The Human Mortality Database A joint venture between reasearcher teams in the US and Germany, the HMD provides detailed mortality and population data from 38 countries to anyone interested in the history of human longevity. Free but requires registration.
US Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau's mission is to collect, analyze, publish, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. Topics include crime characteristics and trends, data about police-public contact, recidivism rates, etc.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics The BLS deals with a wide array of data related to employment, prices, productivity, etc., but especially noteworthy from a public health perspective is Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities, which provides annual information on the rate and number of work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatal injuries.
USDHHS - Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality AHRQ is the primary federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of the US health care system. Look for fact sheets and data sets on many topics, including health literacy, medical errors, medical expenditures, and more.
USDHHS - AHRQ - HCUPnet HCUPnet provides health care statistics and information for hospital inpatient, emergency department, and ambulatory settings from which you can create reports or charts and export data. The Quick Statistics Tables option is a shortcut to the most common queries.
WHO - Global Health Observatory This is the World Health Organization's portal for health statistics from 194 member states. The site provides many summary graphics and interactive visualizations but also links out actual reports and data sets.
Xculture - Cross Cultural Health Care Program The Cross Cultural Health Care Program is a nonprofit training and consulting organization that seeks to advance access to quality health care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate.