Vital Records’ Birth Data Documentation: One Codebook to Rule Them All

Attention, birth data users—a single DPH Vital Records Birth Codebook has been created! Identified as an unmet data need during bureau and office interviews, the Data Management Support Unit prioritized the epic task of compiling historic codebooks, notes, definitions, and data profiles. The resulting document can be found at:

• Data Sources Repository—DPH Data Sources—Data Profiles—Birth (see “Related Documents”)
• Data Sources Repository—Libraries—Reference Materials—VRAD

Moving forward, these documents will house any updates to birth data collection, definitions, and release notes.

Community Assessment of Heat Disaster Readiness in Milwaukee Yields Valuable Data

By Victory Idehen, BEOH Intern

In 2018, the DHS Climate and Health Program and local partners used a CDC methodology, the Community Assessment of Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER), to identify community readiness and needs in the city of Milwaukee prior to an extreme heat disaster.

The Climate and Health Program worked closely with the City of Milwaukee Health Department, UniteMKE, and Sixteenth Street Community Health Center on the project design to ensure an equitable process that resulted in community ownership and data accessibility—learn more about the project outcomes, community needs, and opportunities for improvement on the BEOH News page.

U.S. Census' Community Resilience Estimates and Household Pulse Survey: COVID-19 Snapshots

"Community resilience is the capacity of individuals and households to absorb, endure, and recover from the health, social, and economic impacts of a disaster such as a hurricane or pandemic" (U.S. Census Bureau) Tract and county-level estimates of resilience are available from the U.S. Census Bureau, and help stakeholders and public health officials model differential areas of impact and groups that may be more vulnerable than others. They recently released an interactive visualization that displays the above—take a look at Wisconsin's profile!

Additionally, to further understand the impact of COVID-19 on households, the Census Bureau began the Household Pulse Survey on April 23, 2020. The U.S. Census Bureau expects to collect data for 90 days, and release downloadable data each week. The data are available online.