Geographic Area: Access data for particular geographic areas or levels, such as for a town, county, school district, or for the entire state.
Other Search Categories: Access data by a variety of other categories, such as health topic, year, age, income level, and gender.
Calculated Statistics and Measurements: Calculate various measures on selected data, such as crude rates, age-adjusted rates, or age-specific rates.
Types of Reports: Create instant topics (predefined) or custom (user-defined) reports, charts, and maps.
Data Sources
MassCHIP provides access to the following data sources:
Data Source | Includes Data on... |
|---|---|
Vital Statistics | |
Deaths (1989-2008) | Deaths by cause |
Births (1989-2008) | Birth data such as number of births, prenatal care, maternal age and education, and congenital anomalies |
Infant deaths (1989-2008) | Deaths by cause for infants under age 1 |
Linked birth/infant death (1989-2007) | Infant deaths linked to birth records |
Communicable Disease | |
Childhood immunization (1989-2009) | Immunization rates (state-wide data only) |
Epidemiology (Animal Rabies (1997-2008, Campylobacter, Giardia, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Lyme Disease, Pertussis, Salmonella, Shigella (1989-2008). | New cases |
Tuberculosis (1989-2007) | New cases |
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis) (1989-2008) | New cases |
AIDS/HIV (for 1999-2007) | New and existing cases |
Sociodemographics | |
Population data (1985-1998, 2000, 2001-2005) | Census counts (1990, 2000), MISER Estimates (1985, 1991-1998), Population interpolations (1986-1989) and Postcensal estimates (2001-2005) |
Medicaid recipients (1993-1996) | Recipients |
Division of Employment and Training (1990-2008) | Employed and unemployed persons |
US Census Socioeconomic data (1990 and 2000) | Socioeconomic data such as level of education, employment, poverty rates, income levels, marital status, housing arrangements, and work disabilities |
Department of Transitional Assistance (1998-2009) | Persons in families with dependent children receiving welfare |
MDPH Program Utilization | |
Early Intervention (EI) (calender year 1991-2006) (fiscal year 1991-2007) | Children aged 0 to 3 receiving Early Intervention program services |
Women, Infants, and Children Supplemental Food Program (WIC) (1992-2007) | Active participants |
Substance Abuse (1992-2008) | Inpatient treatment admissions and admissions due to injection drug use by primary substance categories. |
Other Data Sets | |
Childhood lead screening (1990-2008) | New cases and number screened and at risk |
Cancer Incidence (1985-2007) | New cases of 28 different types of cancers |
Hospital discharges (1989-2008) | Hospital discharges by disease |
Hospital Emergency Department (2002-2008) | Emergency Department Visits by Disease |
Observation Stay (2002-2008) | Hospital cases held for observation but not formally admitted |
Weapons Related Injury Surveillance System (WRISS) (1994-2009) | Weapon Related Injury Cases |
Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (1986-2009) | Health behaviors and risk factors related to areas such as AIDS, alcohol, nutrition, cancer, smoking, and weight |
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) (formally DOE) (1986-2007) | Public education expenditures, school enrollment, and dropouts |
Department of Children and Families (formerly Department of Social Services (1998, 2002-2009) | Children in foster care and reports of child abuse. |
Division of Early Education and Care (formerly Office for Child Care Services) (1998-2008) | Licensed child care slots |
Physicians Registered in Massachusetts (2001 2002, 2005, 2007, 2008) | Full and Active Licenses, Practicing in Massachusetts |
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (1993-2007) | Survey of risk behavior among children grades 9-12 conducted by the Department of Education |
Geographic Area
You can access MassCHIP data for a variety of geographic groupings and levels, including by:
- The entire state
- Any of the 351 cities or towns in Massachusetts
- Massachusetts counties
- Neighborhoods in Boston, Springfield, and Lowell
- Various standard regional groupings, including Community Health Network Areas (CHNAs), Healthy Start Regions, and Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHSS) Regions
- Urban/Rural
- School districts
- Legislative Districts
- Combinations of groupings that you specify
Other Search Categories
You can access MassCHIP data by other categories in addition to geographic area. Depending on the data source, you may be able to see data for a specified:
- Year
- Race/ethnicity
- Age
- Education level
- Annual income
- Sex
- Grade in school
For most data sources, you can also search for data by:
- More than 200 health topics
- Diagnosis (ICD) codes
- Healthy People Year 2010 Objectives
Calculated Statistics and Measures
MassCHIP can calculate basic statistics and measures on data you access, including:
- Percentages and proportions
- Crude rates
- Age-adjusted rates
- Age-specific rates
- Standardized ratios
- Modified counts, proportions, and rates for Mortality (ICD-10 based) Data Set
Types of Reports
MassCHIP lets you view instant topics (formerly known as predefined standard reports), custom (user defined) reports, charts, and maps. You can also save and export data to other software programs, such as spreadsheet and database packages.
Instant Topics
Formerly known as Standard Reports in the client version of MassCHIP, Instant Topics present health data on frequently requested topics. Instant Topics can now be accessed via the Internet. Each instant topic brings together relevant data from a variety of data sources to provide information on a topic. When you create a report, you specify the geographical area you are interested in. All the other categories, such as year and age, are preset. The years used within Instant Topics follow the most current data available in MassCHIP.
MassCHIP currently includes forty-eight instant topics:
- Adolescent Health
- Asthma - Behavioral Risk factor Surveillance System
- Asthma - Mortality and Hospital Data
- Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Sub-State Reports - Chronic Illness
- Behvioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - General Health Status
- Behvioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - Health Care Access
- Behvioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - Health Screening
- Behvioral Risk Factor Surveillance System - Risk Factors and Health Behaviors
- Births Defects
- Cancer: Breast
- Cancer: Bronchus and Lung
- Cancer: Cervix
- Cancer: Colon/Rectum
- Cancer: Leukemia
- Cancer: Melanoma
- Cancer: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
- Cancer: Oral Cavity and Pharynx
- Cancer: Ovary
- Cancer: Prostate
- Cancer: Testis
- Cancer: Urinary Bladder
- Cancer: Uterine
- Cancer City-Town Profile
- Cardiovascular Health
- Census 1990, 2000 Socio-Demographic Trends
- Census 2000 Socio-Demographic Profiles
- Census 2000: Income/Poverty
- Diabetes
- Disability
- Health Status Indicators
- Healthy People 2010 Chronic Disease
- Healthy People 2010 Maternal and Child Health
- Kids Count
- Mortality Standard Report: All Large Cities/Towns Sorted by Rate
- Occupational Health: 2000
- Occupational Health: 2001
- Occupational Health: 2002
- Occupational Health: 2003
- Older Adults
- Perinatal
- Perinatal Trends
- Race/Hispanic Ethnicity Report: Birth and Perinatal Indicators
- Race/Hispanic Ethnicity Report: Mortality
- Smoking
- Weapons Related Injury Surveillance System (WRISS)
- Women in Need of Contraceptive Services
The Health Status Indicators standard report includes indicators on demographics, child health care, injury, chronic disease, substance abuse, and hospital discharges. If you look up information for the city of Boston, the Chronic Disease section of the report might look like the table below. The table shows the total number of cancer and cardiovascular deaths in Boston, the rates of death per 100,000 residents for Boston, and the rates for the state as a whole.
Chronic Disease Indicators: Boston | Area Count | Area Age-adjusted Rate | State Age-adjusted Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
Total deaths (all causes) | 4,491 | 914.74 | 814.61 |
Total cancer deaths | 1,057 | 231.12 | 209.33 |
Lung cancer deaths | 292 | 65.49 | 54.95 |
Breast cancer deaths | 68 | 24.93 | 27.74 |
Cardiovascular disease deaths | 1,507 | 300.85 | 293.02 |
Age adjusted rates are expressed per 100,000 persons. 1999 Mortality (Vital Records) 1991-1998 MISER estimates | |||
Custom Reports
Custom reports give you greater flexibility than instant topics, because you can specify exactly which data you want to obtain. For example, you can access data from the Cancer Registry, the Department of Employment and Training, or the U.S. Census Bureau. You can select data by health topic or diagnosis (ICD) codes. And depending on the data source, you can categorize data in a variety of ways, such as by age, race and ethnicity, income level, education level, or school district.
Custom reports also give you more options for presenting data. Along with displaying data in tables, you can also present the data in maps and charts.
Charts and Maps
MassCHIP lets you display data graphically in charts and maps, as well as in tables.
The following chart, for example, shows age-specific rates of lung cancer for Massachusetts residents age 45 and older in 1994.
The following map shows the number of deaths from circulatory system diseases for 1997 by Executive Office of Health and Human Services regions.
This information is provided by MassCHIP within the Department of Public Health.