Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.
About Health Statistics
Health statistics are numbers that summarize information related to health. Researchers and experts from government, private, and non-profit agencies and organizations collect health statistics. They use the statistics to learn about public health and health care. Some of the types of statistics include:
- How many people in the country have a disease or how many people got the disease within a certain period of time
- How many people of a certain group have a disease. The groups could be based on location, race, ethnic group, sex, age, profession, income level, or level of education. This can help identify health disparities.
- Whether a treatment is safe and effective
- How many people were born and died. These are known as vital statistics.
- How many people have access to and use health care
- The quality and efficiency of our health care system
- Health care costs, including how much the government, employers, and individuals pay for health care. It could include how poor health can affect the country economically
- The impact of government programs and policies on health
- Risk factors for different diseases. An example would be how air pollution can raise your risk of lung diseases
- Ways to lower risk for diseases, such as exercise and weight loss to lower the risk of getting type 2 diabetes
Numbers on a graph or in a chart may seem straightforward, but that's not always the case. It's important to be critical and consider the source. If needed, ask questions to help you understand the statistics and what they are showing.
It sits within Health System.
When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.
Research on Health Statistics
20 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.
What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.
Research currently under way
- The TRIABETES - ARMMS-T2D Study: A Randomized Trial to Compare Surgical and Medical Treatments for Type 2 DiabetesUniversity of Pittsburgh
- Data Science and Qualitative Research for Decision Support in the HIV Care CascadeBrown University
- Analyzing Acoustic Properties of the Vowel "a" Collected Via Mobile Phone From Individuals Diagnosed With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Health Control GroupsBlekinge Institute of Technology
Research already completed
- Comparing Relative Strengths of Statistical Associations Between Psychological Traits and Vaccination-Related Outcomes IUniversity of Iowa
- Intensive Models of HCV Care for Injection Drug UsersPrisma Health-Upstate
- PAthogen Transmission and Health Outcome Models of Enteric DiseaseState University of New York at Buffalo
- Statistical Analysis of Prevalence, Incidence, Comorbidities and Medical Expense in Epileptic Children in Taiwan Based on National Health Research Insurance Database.National Taiwan University Hospital
- Making Data Count Intervention EvaluationUniversity of Warwick
- Interventions To Help Asthma Clinical AdherenceUniversity of California, San Francisco
Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.
Where to read more
Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Start Here
- FastStats: A to ZNational Center for Health Statistics
- Health, United States, 2018National Center for Health Statistics
- Measuring the Nation's HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention
Related Issues
- FastStats: Deaths and MortalityNational Center for Health Statistics
- FastStats: Leading Causes of DeathNational Center for Health Statistics
- FastStats: Life ExpectancyNational Center for Health Statistics
- Global Health Estimates: Life Expectancy and Leading Causes of Death and DisabilityWorld Health Organization
- Leading Health Indicators -- Healthy People 2030Department of Health and Human Services
- National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) Birth DataNational Center for Health Statistics
- State Health FactsKFF
- Top 10 Causes of Death in the WorldWorld Health Organization
Medical subject headings
Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Statistics as Topic. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.
This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Health Statistics, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.