OBJECTIVES This report details the National Center for Health Statistics' (NCHS) development of the 2006 NCHS Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties and provides some examples of how the scheme can be used to describe differences in health measures by urbanization level. METHODS The 2006 NCHS urban-rural classification scheme classifies all U.S. counties and county-equivalents into si...

PROBLEM/CONDITION Suicide is a public health problem and one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States. Substantial geographic variations in suicide rates exist, with suicides in rural areas occurring at much higher rates than those occurring in more urban areas. Understanding demographic trends and mechanisms of death among and within urbanization levels is important to develo...

BACKGROUND Maintenance dialysis is a relatively low prevalence, highly specialized, and labour-intensive treatment, which is usually delivered at regional centres serving many different health authorities. It is unknown whether a patient's health authority, in many ways an accident of birth, influences long-term dialysis outcomes. AIM To study survival patterns in patients starting maintenanc...

The Weight of the Crisis: Evidence from Newborns in Argentina Argentina hit headlines around the world in 2002 on account of the largest debt default in history and a sudden economic collapse that generated statistics reminiscent of those from the Great Depression. In this article we focus on other consequences of the crisis that are not so obvious but that may linger for decades. Combining mac...

OBJECTIVES To study whether the amount of dental plaque, which indicates poor oral hygiene and is potential source of oral infections, associates with premature death from cancer. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS 1390 randomly selected healthy young Swedes followed up from 1985 to 2009. All subjects underwent oral clinical examination and answered a questionnaire assessing back...

A cross-sectional study on 1206 children (788 boys, 618 girls) aged 1-12 years, belonging to low socioeconomic status, of Barasat and Madhyamgram, West Bengal, India, was undertaken to investigate age and sex variations in height and weight. It also evaluated the levels of underweight and stunting among them. Anthropometric measurements included weight and height. Weight-for-age (WA) and height...

BACKGROUND Since 2000 various tobacco control measures have been implemented in the UK. Changes in the smoking status of low and high socioeconomic status (SES) groups in England during this period (2001-08) are explored. METHODS Secondary analysis of the Health Survey for England general population samples was undertaken. Over 88 000 adults, age 16 or over, living in England were included. S...

This article reviews the historical development of population health indicators. We have long known that environmental, socioeconomic, early life conditions, individual actions, and medical care all interact to affect health. Present quantitative reporting on the impact of these factors on population health grew out of Bills of Mortality published in the 1500s. Since then, regular censuses, civ...