We first looked at CDC Wonder a couple of issues ago (RR 2016/261). The focus of the earlier review was very much on the mortality statistics available in the database, so here we take a wider look at the data it contains. CDC WONDER (the “WONDER” acronym is derived from Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research) allows for easy access for health, nursing and medical students, as well as policy makers, to about 20 collections of data for US births, deaths, cancer, tuberculosis (TB) cases, vaccinations, environmental exposures and much more. It is easy to tailor the search to study weekly, monthly or annual data. It was easy to find a world of statistics about zika by using the keyword search, and results included reports on zika and pregnancy, a video in Spanish, American maps, world maps and case counts. The Centers for Disease Control is an award-winning health protection agency that conducts research itself and distributes research grants for scientists to perform research to understand and respond to public health threats. WONDER was used in more than 100 articles in the past year to explore sepsis, team-based care, alcoholism, even police use of deadly force on Black males, very much any topic related to health.
Besides, the more obvious health threats (diabetes, heart disease, cancer), the CDC WONDER shows maps of “social vulnerability” which includes poverty, access to a car, lack of high school diploma and lack of English language skills, to name a few of the criteria. Annual health reports (which include leisure and exercise) are here, along with a youth behavior surveillance system, which includes startling news about guns on campus (six per cent of students’ report being threatened or injured by guns), dating violence and drilling down the level of having eaten fruit (or not) during the seven days preceding the survey.
The website’s homepage accesses the WONDER online databases, study specific reports or use the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports to look for patterns. The Topics tab takes the user to reports organized by broad categories, such as occupational health, communicable diseases, environmental health and specific conditions such as asthma and cancer. The A-Z Index tab takes the user to helpful resources such as Report Cards, which is a link to a variety of research reports on women’s health, mental health, aging and health and more. Doing a keyword search from the homepage (Somali and Minnesota) retrieved many research reports, or a general search for farm accidents found many reports.
This website allows the user to find, compare and contrast various data easily. For example, the user can click on a map of Minnesota, then Blue Earth County and find that it ranks 43rd in the state for health. The statistics allowed me to readily compare my county to another in terms of smoking, obesity, food environment, physical inactivity, alcohol-impaired driving deaths and teen births. Besides being able to study the past, users can find predictions of the future, such as the Projections of the Size and Composition of the US Population: 2014 to 2060.
This software allows users to request data that can be downloaded to any number of statistical software packages. In addition, users can collaborate on projects using WONDER. Whether the information required is the straightforward need for an individual statistic or timeline or the progression of the occurrence of a disease, or the more complex need to create and compare health data, WONDER is the first stop.
