This project will install the mortality and linked birth/infant death files from the National Center for Health Statistics on the PDQ-Explore information system to provide users with relatively quick and easy access to the data sets and the information they contain. Value-added enhancements will be made to the data and documentation to facilitate use of the data by both novices and experts. The Web user interface will be further developed to incorporate more of the appearance and capabilities of the graphical interface to our client-server version of the system. The feasibility and merit of developing a number of value-added components will be assessed. These will include, among others, recoding items to more meaningful categories, providing common coding for items that vary across years, linking aggregate social, economic, and demographic data to the microdata records, and providing static and dynamic links to the base counts required to compute birth and death rates. These components will assist users in their efforts to extract meaningful information from the data. Feedback will be solicited through workshops and other direct contact with users.
Adding the NCHS vital statistics data to our information system, PDQ- Explore, will increase the value of the system to demographic, public heath, public policy, and social science researchers and analysts. The data will also have potential value for targeted marketing in the health care industry.
