PUBH 6341. Sources of Epidemiology Exercise. 2016 Name: ______________________

Surveillance Data Discovery ExercisePublic health surveillance includes regular and ongoing systematic data collection, analysis, interpretation, and timely dissemination. Surveillance data measure the occurrence and distributions of hazards, population characteristics, behaviors, and health, and can be used to assess intervention needs as well as evaluate their effects.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Environmental Public Health Tracking program (MN Tracking) conducts environmental health surveillance across the state, with a key objective of tracking temporal and spatial trends in the environment and health outcomes to identify populations at-risk and inform public health action. MN Tracking was initiated in 2007 when state legislation mandated environmental health and surveillance and biomonitoring studies. Since then, MDH has joined with 24 state and local health departments in the CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, working to fill data gaps in long-term environmental health surveillance data.

The MN Public Health Data Access Portal (MN Data portal) is maintained by MDH MN Tracking to make surveillance data publicly-available, integrating data to better equip Minnesota’s communities, policymakers, researchers, and public health professionals to explore relationships between environmental exposures and health effects. The MN Data Portal currently provides information on 23 environmental and population health topics, along with a number of tools to aid users in viewing, understanding, and disseminating information, including hover-over information, interactive maps, data queries, custom downloads, and county profiles.

Hover-over information allows users to gather more information, learn definitions, and see data values on a specific topic by hovering their mouse pointer over a word or image. A number of topics have data that is displayed on an interactive map, which allows users to specify the data and information on the map, sort data in tables, and compare maps side by side for a topic. Data queries allow users to generate custom data tables based on their specifications for certain topics. County profiles enable users to view a profile of health and environment data for any Minnesota county.

Minnesota Public Health Data Access Portal

PUBH 6341. Sources of Epidemiology Exercise. 2016 Name: ______________________

Goals: Learn about the Poverty & Income, Cancer, and Childhood Blood Lead

indicators available on the MN Data portal. Use tools such as hover-over information, interactive maps, data queries,

and county profiles to access and understand data. Public health surveillance background (not necessary for the exercise):

CDC’s Vision for Public Health Surveillance in the 21st Century. MMWR Supp. Vol 61. (2012) Available: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/other/su6103.pdf

Public Health Surveillance: A Tool for Targeting and Monitoring Interventions, in: Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd Ed. (2006). Available: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11770/

o Good reference for surveillance principles, tools, methods, and applications.

Use the MN Data Access Portal to answer the following questions.

I. You would like to know more about poverty and income in Minnesota:

1. Click on the “Poverty and Income >“View Charts” option and answer the following (scroll down as needed)What percentage of children under the age of 5 were living in poverty in 2011? 18%

Has this estimate increased, decreased, or remained stable since 2002? Increased

2. Use the “Explore data” option to answer the following question about “People in poverty” by county. Which county had the highest percentage of people of all ages at 100% poverty from 2010-2014?Mahnomen

GO back to the main page of the website by clicking the home icon

PUBH 6341. Sources of Epidemiology Exercise. 2016 Name: ______________________

II. You are interested in cases of cancer occurring throughout the state of Minnesota:

3. Click on “Cancer>View Charts>Melanoma.”Is the rate of melanoma increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable for females and males?Increasing

What risk factor may be partly responsible for the change over time?Increased exposure to UV light through use of sun-tanning beds.

4. Click on “Explore Data>Breast cancer (female).” Then select the table icon

.For 2009 - 2013, which county has the highest age-adjusted incidence rate of female breast cancer among women aged 50 and older? Steele County

5. How many new cases of breast cancer occurred in females 50 years of age and older in MN from 2009 to 2013?16,134

6. Why have some of the county rates of breast cancer been suppressed (as indicated by **)?The underlying population of females aged 50 years or older was less than 1,000 (or 5,000 people in the 5-year period), so the rate was suppressed to protect individual privacy.

GO BACK to the main page of the website by clicking the home icon.

III. You would like to know more about the rates of childhood lead levels and testing in Minnesota:

Click on “Childhood Lead Exposure”7. What is one of the major risk factors for childhood lead poisoning?

Housing built before 1950 when lead paint was phased out. Or living in a house built before 1978 when lead paint was banned

8. How many children born in 2009 were tested for blood lead in Minnesota?57,364