Health Statistics: Home

Step One:

• Think about the details - Health Statistics is a general search. What do you really want?
  • Statistics for a particular group (sex, age, ethnicity, ...),
  • in a particular place (city, province, country,...),
  • for a particular disease (cancer, tuberculosis, diabetes, ...),
  • and/or other variables (emotional, mental, physical health, wellness)?
• Identify your search terms. The more you know about your topic (what is MRSA?) the better.
  • Find the words that best describe your topic.
  • You may change these words as your research progresses.
• Consider sources. Do you need a specific type of source? 
  • Book, journal article, statistical publication, Government Document, print, website?

Step Two:

• Books and journal articles may cite statistics. Note where the statistics originate - for example, are they citing agencies such as Statistics Canada, or other federal and provincial departments (some of whom publish an assortment of health annuals)? Consider searching the original data for other details.
• Have a statistic - but you want a newer or an older version? If possible, identify the source and check to determine whether that number was collected for other years.

Step Three:

Set up your search: for a Library Catalog (One Stop Search) - keep your search simple. Start with the most descriptive health term/s (such as the specific disease – cancer, diabetes, etc., or the worker – nurses, pharmacists, etc., or whatever term identifies what you want). Then try including the term statistics in your search as this word is a Subject term in many records. Sample searches:

diabetes statistics

births statistics

health graduates statistics

Geography, sex, age, income levels, and so on may be more tricky. Usually, these will be included in the statistical breakdown of your topic.(For example, statistics on tuberculosis likely include categories for age, sex, geography. However, these latter terms may not be searchable - the material may simply be indexed as Tuberculosis statistics in Canada.) Prepare to search for your main topic, and then look at what's available within that topic.