Community Nutrition Internet Resources

International Statistics

  • United Nations Statistics Division

    • The Social Indicators web page is a gateway for international statistics concerning population, education, health, literacy, and income/economic activity. The advantage to using this site is that many countries can be compared side by side in regard to a specific subject area such as health.

  • UNICEF

    • Provides selected world health statistics by country, such as infant mortality rate, percent of population immunized, nutrition data, and adult literacy rate.

  • World Factbook 2007

    • A great site for obtaining information about a specific country. Statistics useful for this class will be found under the People and Economy categories after selecting the country of interest.

  • Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Country Health Profiles 2002

    • An excellent source for obtaining health information/statistics from countries in North and South America. Below the data tables for each country, there is a Health Situation Analysis and Trends Summary, a listing of Specific Health Problems, and a Response of the Health System to the country’s enumerated health problems.

United States Statistics

  • U.S. Census Bureau

    • A useful site for obtaining demographic, economic, and social statistics on a national, state, or county level. Many of these statistics will be useful in grant writing.

  • Centers for Disease Control

    • Contains many pertinent links for community nutrition topics. Particularly useful resources include the top 20 at CDC, the A-Z index, Healthy Living section, Data & Statistics link, and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

  • National Center for Health Statistics

    • Part of the CDC, this is the U.S. Government's principal vital and health statistics agency. The most useful part of this site is FastStats A-Z, which is an alphabetical list of states and conditions for which you can get a concise page of quick facts and relevant links.

  • Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

    • Also part of the CDC, this is a telephone survey that tracks information regarding health risks such as AIDS, diabetes, and weight control. You can find this from the CDC home page by selecting the link for Data and Statistics, then choosing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System under the Key Resources heading.

  • Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007

    • Published by the Bureau of the Census, this is the basic annual compendium of federal statistics. Of special interest is the Health and Nutrition section.

  • Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey

    • Largest-ever survey on Americans' civic engagement (how much residents trust others, socialize with others, and oin with others).

West Virginia Statistics

  • West Virginia Health Statistics Center

    • Many helpful health statistics for the state and county level are available here, including the annual Vital Statistics report, County Health Profiles, a Health Status Atlas, and the Bureau for Employment Programs (BEP) County Profiles.

  • Status of Women in the States

    • Sponsored by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, this site presents an in-depth analysis of the status of women in 9 states including West Virginia, done in 2002. The major sections of the report include information about Politics, Economics, Health, Rights, and Demographics. To read the in-depth report, click on Read the 9 in-depth state reports in the index, then choose West Virginia. To just view highlights of the report, click on West Virginia under the United States map on the home page.

Disease-Specific Statistics

Health Promotion Websites

  • CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention

    • This site describes the burden of a particular disease or condition, as well as CDC's efforts to address the problem. Topics include Aging, Arthritis, Cancer Control, Cardiovascular Health, Diabetes, and Physical Activity and Nutrition, among others.

  • American Diabetes Association

    • The Weight Loss & Exercise and Nutrition & Recipes links contain a recipe of the day, a virtual grocery store tour, and information on eating healthy, eating out, sweeteners, alcohol, and exchange lists.

  • American Heart Association Healthy Lifestyle

    • This section of the American Heart Association website contains heart-healthy suggestions for diet/nutrition, exercise/fitness, managing your lifestyle, ways to protect yourself against heart disease, and how to lower your cholesterol.

  • National Cholesterol Education Program Live Healthier Live Longer

    • This interactive website has a prevention side that contains information about coronary heart disease, a Create-A-Diet page, FAQ's, and a Resource Library that contains tip sheets and Internet Resources.

  • American Heart Association Delicious Decisions

    • Provides heart-healthy recipes and tips for exercise, diet, shopping, eating out, and snacking.

Dietary Supplement Information

  • Herbs and Supplements via MedlinePlus

    • MedlinePlus includes information on over 100 herbs and supplements from Natural Standard. Each monograph contains evidence-based, peer-reviewed data, and many contain illustrations. References are also included. Information can be browsed by the first letter of the herb or supplement.

  • Wellness Guide to Dietary Supplements

    • A service of the Berkeley Wellness Letter. Provides claims, purported benefits, evidence, and the “bottom line” for 25 popular supplements.

  • Dietary Supplements—Medline Plus

    • This site from the National Library of Medicine has links to the latest news regarding supplements, general overviews of supplements, specific conditions for which supplements are used, law and policy concerning supplements, lists of print publications, organizations, and information about supplements for children, teenagers, and seniors.

  • Dietary Supplements—NCCAM

    • Sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), this site has links to articles about understanding dietary supplements, research resources, clinical trials, and information on a wide variety of specific supplements. The Herbs at a Glance Series is particularly good.

  • Annual Bibliographies of Significant Advances in Dietary Supplement Research

    • These publications by the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements and the Consumer Healthcare Products Association present significant research (top 25 articles) in the dietary supplement field for the years 1999 - 2005. The lists will allow the reader to see trends in dietary supplement research and to follow up in areas of interest.

  • National Institute of Health Office of Dietary Supplements—Health Information Page

    • This page contains links to publications and safety notices about dietary supplements, Fact Sheets on dietary supplements, RDA’s and DRI’s for dietary supplements, and the IBIDS Database of Dietary Supplement Literature. A highlight of this page is the Informed Decision Making section.

  • USDA National Agriculture Library Food & Nutrition Information Center—Dietary Supplements

    • Another good overall resource regarding dietary supplements. One of the most useful sections of this page is the Resource Lists link at the top of the page. Scroll down the list of resource lists to the grouping for Herbal and Dietary Supplements. There are excellent annotated lists for both consumers (done in 2006) and professionals (2005) that include bibliographies, books, web resources, newsletters, and pertinent agencies and organizations.

  • Herbs, Botanicals, and other Products

    • Sponsored by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, this site provides objective, evidence-based information about herbs, botanicals, vitamins, and other supplements. A clinical summary is provided for each agent, as well as its adverse effects, interactions, and potential benefits or problems. Evaluations of alternative or unproved cancer therapies, as well as products for sexual dysfunction are also included. A consumer version of each monograph is also included.

  • Internet Marketing of Herbal Products

    • Abstract of an article appearing in JAMA September 17, 2003 to assess the information presented and indications claimed on the Internet for the 8 best-selling herbal products.