Life & Health Sciences

Public health research

Public health research studies the health of populations rather than individual patients, and its practice runs on a small set of shared infrastructure. Much US work starts from National Center for Health Statistics data: NHANES, the only national health survey that includes health exams and laboratory tests; the National Health Interview Survey; and the mortality, natality and population files queried through CDC WONDER. State-level risk-factor estimates come from BRFSS, the CDC telephone survey that completes more than 400,000 adult interviews a year. Restricted-use files with indirect identifiers such as county of residence are reached through an application to the NCHS Research Data Center. Observational studies are reported against STROBE, or its RECORD extension when they use routinely collected health data, both found through the EQUATOR Network library. Two rules shape review. The revised Common Rule deems public health surveillance conducted or authorized by a public health authority not to be research, so projects need a careful practice-versus-research determination. HIPAA lets a covered entity release a limited data set for research or public health only under a data use agreement. Funding comes from CDC grants and cooperative agreements, NIH institutes such as NIMHD, and foundations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. APHA, which lists the American Journal of Public Health among its publications, is the main US society, CDC publishes MMWR, and medRxiv is the field's preprint server.

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Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board

Sources

CDC/NCHS: NHANES(read 5 November 2026)
CDC: BRFSS(read 5 November 2026)
CDC WONDER(read 5 November 2026)
CDC/NCHS: NHIS(read 5 November 2026)
CDC: National Center for Health Statistics(read 5 November 2026)
CDC/NCHS: Research Data Center(read 5 November 2026)
STROBE Statement(read 5 November 2026)
RECORD Statement(read 5 November 2026)
EQUATOR Network(read 5 November 2026)
45 CFR 46.102 (Cornell LII)(read 5 November 2026)
45 CFR 164.514 (Cornell LII)(read 5 November 2026)
CDC grants(read 5 November 2026)
NIMHD(read 5 November 2026)
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation(read 5 November 2026)
American Public Health Association(read 5 November 2026)
CDC: MMWR(read 5 November 2026)
medRxiv: about(read 5 November 2026)

Field at a glance

Archives, facilities and data

NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey): NCHS survey described by CDC as the only national health survey that includes health exams and laboratory tests.Website ↗
BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System): CDC telephone survey of health risks, chronic conditions and preventive services in all states, D.C. and three territories, over 400,000 adult interviews a year.Website ↗
CDC WONDER: Ad-hoc query system over natality, mortality, cancer, population, environmental and notifiable-condition data.Website ↗
National Health Interview Survey (NHIS): NCHS household survey, described as the nation's largest and oldest household health survey, with early release estimates and query tools.Website ↗
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): The nation's provider of official health statistics; runs NHANES, NHIS, NSFG, the National Health Care Surveys and the National Vital Statistics System.Website ↗
NCHS Research Data Center (RDC): Application-based access to restricted-use NCHS and federal survey files with indirect identifiers such as county, never direct identifiers.Website ↗

Standards and formats

STROBE Statement: Reporting checklist for the three main observational designs: cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies.Website ↗ · Our guide →
RECORD Statement: STROBE extension for observational studies using routinely collected data such as administrative records, EHRs and disease registries.Website ↗ · Our guide →
EQUATOR Network: International network that maintains the database of health research reporting guidelines.Website ↗ · Our guide →
45 CFR 46.102(l)(2): public health surveillance: Revised Common Rule text deeming surveillance conducted or authorized by a public health authority not to be research.Website ↗ · Our guide →
45 CFR 164.514(e): HIPAA limited data sets: Limited data sets may be used or disclosed only for research, public health or health care operations, under a data use agreement.Website ↗ · Our guide →

Funders and programmes

CDC grants and cooperative agreements: CDC financial assistance: Notices of Funding Opportunity, the award life cycle and post-award management in GrantSolutions.Website ↗
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD): NIH institute whose mission is research in humans to improve minority health and reduce health disparities.Website ↗
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: US health philanthropy that posts open funding opportunities and sponsors research and evaluation used in health policy.Website ↗

Societies

American Public Health Association (APHA): Professional association spanning every public health discipline; lists the American Journal of Public Health among its publications and holds an Annual Meeting and Expo.Website ↗

Journals

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR): CDC series comprising the Weekly Report, Recommendations and Reports, Surveillance Summaries and Supplements.Website ↗

Preprints and indexes

medRxiv: Preprint server for medical and health sciences run by openRxiv; it screens submissions and warns preprints should not guide clinical practice.Website ↗ · Our guide →

85 pages across 11 topic areas

Research Methods & Statistics

Case-Cohort Studies: Design, Subcohort Reuse, and Efficiency
A case-cohort study draws one random subcohort once, at baseline, and reuses it as the comparison group for every outcome studied from that cohort — a…
CBPR Partnership Agreements: Principles, Governance and Equitable Authorship
How CBPR partnership agreements structure decision authority, community advisory board power, equitable authorship criteria and data-ownership terms b…
Choosing an Implementation Science Framework: Process, Determinant, or Evaluation
Implementation frameworks serve three different aims — guiding the process, explaining determinants, and evaluating success. A practical routing guide…
Cohort Study vs Case-Control Study: Research Guide
How cohort and case-control designs differ for epidemiology and clinical research: which one starts from exposure and which from outcome, when relativ…
Difference-in-Differences: Evidencing Parallel Trends and the Staggered-Adoption Problem
Parallel trends is a counterfactual assumption, not something a pre-trend plot can confirm. This guide sets out what each diagnostic actually establis…
Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY): Calculation, Uses, and Comparison to QALY
Learn the mathematical construction of Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), how YLL and YLD are combined, and key distinctions from QALYs in resear…
Epidemiology vs Public Health: What Is the Difference?Comparison
Epidemiology is the science of disease patterns and causes in populations; public health is the broader practice of acting on that evidence. Here is h…
Excess Deaths: Models, Formula, and Calculation
A complete guide to calculating excess deaths and excess mortality, from expected baseline models and the CDC Farrington algorithm to P-scores and rep…
Implementation Mapping: The Five-Task Process for Designing Implementation Strategies
Implementation Mapping runs implementation-strategy design through five tasks that match each strategy to a documented determinant rather than convent…
Interrupted Time Series Analysis: Segmented Regression, Autocorrelation, and Lag
Interrupted time series analysis uses segmented regression to separate an immediate level change from a slope change at the intervention point. This g…
Natural Experiments: How to Argue a Shock Is Genuinely Exogenous
What makes a natural experiment's shock genuinely exogenous rather than correlated with unobserved confounders, the pre-trend and placebo checks that…
Nested Case-Control Studies: Risk-Set Sampling and Density Sampling
How risk-set (incidence-density) sampling draws matched controls from a cohort’s risk set at each case’s failure time, and why the resulting odds rati…
Power Analysis and Sample Size Calculation: A Complete Guide
How to run a power analysis to calculate sample size: the four interlocking quantities (effect size, alpha, power, N), a priori vs. post-hoc power, ch…
Proctor's Implementation Outcomes: All Eight, and How to Measure Each
Proctor's eight implementation outcomes -- acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, implementation cost, penetration, and sust…
Public Health vs Environmental Health: What Is the Difference?Comparison
Environmental health is a branch of public health, not a rival to it. Public health is the broad field of protecting and improving the health of popul…
Questionnaire Design: Writing Survey Questions That Work
A construction guide to the questionnaire-design decisions that determine data quality: question wording, response-option and Likert scale design, que…
RE-AIM Framework: How to Measure Each of the Five Dimensions
RE-AIM gives each of its five dimensions a different denominator, and Reach vs. Adoption is where that trips people up most. This guide gives a concre…
Regression Analysis: Assumptions, Interpretation, and How to Report It
A practical guide to choosing between linear, logistic, and other regression models, checking each model's assumptions, interpreting coefficients and…
Synthetic Control Method: Constructing a Weighted Counterfactual for a Single Treated Unit
A synthetic control builds a weighted composite of untreated donor units to serve as a counterfactual for a single treated unit. This guide covers don…
The CDC Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health: The 6 Steps and 4 Standards
CDC's six-step framework treats stakeholder engagement as gating, not a formality, then sequences describing the program, focusing the design, gatheri…
The COM-B Model: Diagnosing Capability, Opportunity and Motivation Before You Design
COM-B is a diagnostic step, not a menu of interventions. This guide covers specifying the target behaviour with AACTT, using the 14 TDF domains to int…
The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR): The 5 Domains as a Coding Framework
CFIR organizes the contextual barriers and facilitators an implementation runs into across five domains. This guide covers the 2022 domain names and c…
The PRECEDE-PROCEED Model: What Each of the 8 Phases Produces, and How It Differs From RE-AIM
PRECEDE-PROCEED is an eight-phase framework for planning and evaluating health and social-behavior programmes: four assessment phases (social, epidemi…
Types of Validity in Research: Measurement Validity vs Design Validity
Measurement validity (face, content, construct, criterion) and design validity (internal, external, statistical-conclusion) are two distinct families…
Vaccine Efficacy: Formula, Worked Example and Interpretation
Vaccine efficacy is 1 minus the risk ratio. Formula, two worked examples, a reading table, and Excel, R and Python code.…
Wastewater Surveillance: NWSS Methods and Data
A technical guide to wastewater surveillance and the CDC NWSS: sampling methods, RT-ddPCR molecular detection, PMMoV normalization, and data access.…
What Is Environmental Health? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
Environmental health is the field that studies how physical, chemical, and biological factors in our surroundings affect human health. This guide cove…
What Is Epidemiology? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A complete guide to epidemiology: its core definition and methods, major subfields, the real funding landscape (NIH institutes, CDC, NSF, private foun…
What Is Health Services Research? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A research-administration-focused guide to health services research: what it studies, its sub-disciplines (comparative effectiveness, implementation s…
What Is Public Health? Research Areas, Funding, and Career Paths
A research-administration-focused guide to public health: what it studies, its core sub-disciplines, the federal and foundation funding landscape, sta…

Clinical Research Administration

Budget Impact Analysis: What It Is and How It Differs From Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
Budget impact analysis projects the net financial effect of a new intervention on a payer's budget over a defined time horizon -- affordability, not v…
Case-Control Study vs. Cohort Study: Design, Direction, and When to Use EachComparison
Case-control studies work backward from outcome to exposure and report an odds ratio; cohort studies work forward from exposure to outcome and report…
Case-Control Study: Design, Odds Ratios, and Common Pitfalls
A practical guide to case-control study design: selecting cases and controls, measuring exposure retrospectively, calculating odds ratios, avoiding re…
Cohort Study: Design, Types, and How It Works
A guide to cohort study design in clinical and epidemiological research: prospective vs. retrospective cohorts, how cohort studies compare to case-con…
Discounting Costs and Health Benefits in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
How and why cost-effectiveness analysis discounts future costs and health benefits, the different reference-case rates used by NICE, the US Second Pan…
Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trial Designs Explained
Hybrid effectiveness-implementation designs test whether an intervention works and how to implement it in the same study. This guide explains the Curr…
INESSS: Quebec's Drug and Health Technology Assessment Institute
INESSS is Quebec's own health technology assessment and drug-evaluation body, running a process parallel to (not covered by) CDA-AMC's national reimbu…
Markov Cohort Models in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: States, Transitions, and the Cohort Trace
Markov cohort models move a hypothetical cohort through mutually exclusive health states over discrete cycles. This guide covers the core structure, t…
STROBE Checklist for Observational Studies: The Full 22-Item Guideline
The complete 22-item STROBE checklist for reporting cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies, organized by section, with the four items that…
VAERS Reporting: Who Must Report, When, and What the Data Can Support
VAERS is a passive, hypothesis-generating surveillance system. This guide covers the statutory reporting duty under 42 U.S.C. 300aa-25, the difference…

Patient Safety & Infection Prevention

CPHQ Certification: The Seven Exam Categories, Their Item Counts, and the Eighth Competency Domain
NAHQ publishes item counts, not percentages, for the CPHQ exam. This page reproduces the 2024 Detailed Content Outline category by category, derives t…
Early Warning Score Implementation: Choosing a Score, Calibrating the Threshold, and Managing Alarm Burden
An implementation guide to early warning scores for deteriorating-patient programme leads: choosing between NEWS2, MEWS and machine-learning scores, c…
Enhanced Barrier Precautions (EBP): What It Requires That Standard and Contact Precautions Do Not
Enhanced Barrier Precautions require gown and gloves during eight high-contact resident care activities in nursing homes, without the room restriction…
Epidemic Curve: Choosing the Interval, Onset vs Specimen Date, and Bounding the Exposure Window
The construction decisions behind a hospital epidemic curve: choosing the x-axis interval from the incubation period, why symptom onset and specimen c…
Full Face Respirator: What It Is, APF 50 and What to Check
Full face respirator explained: OSHA APF 50 vs 10 for half masks, fit-test levels, beards, glasses and why it is not an N95, from OSHA and NIOSH.…
P95 Respirator: Standards, Oil Limits & Use Guide
A guide to P95 respirators: NIOSH 42 CFR 84 oil-proof certification, DOP aerosol testing, 40-hour oil limits, and OSHA APF 10 workplace protection sta…
SEP-1: The 3-Hour and 6-Hour Bundle Elements as the Measure Actually Scores Them
SEP-1 is an all-or-nothing, chart-abstracted composite: a hospital can deliver excellent sepsis care and still fail on abstraction technicalities. How…
Syndromic Surveillance Reporting for Hospitals: The ED Feed, NSSP Onboarding, and the CMS Measure
A hospital syndromic surveillance feed carries near-real-time ED registration and triage data to a public health agency. This guide covers the NSSP Pr…
Terminal Cleaning Protocol and Audit: The Discharge Sequence, the High-Touch Checklist, and What Each Audit Method Measures
A guide for EVS and infection prevention: the terminal-cleaning discharge sequence, the CDC high-touch surface checklist, disinfectant contact-time (w…
Total Performance Score: How Hospital VBP Turns Four Domains Into a Payment Adjustment
The Total Performance Score is the number that decides whether Medicare pays a hospital back more or less than the 2% it withheld. This guide works th…

Scholarly Publishing

ASTHO: State and Territorial Health Officials
An operational research guide to the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), covering governance, the ASTHO Profile survey, and…
CDC Stacks: Repository and Public Access Guide
An operational guide to CDC Stacks: repository holdings, MMWR archives, public access compliance, search filters, and persistent identifier citations.…
CHEERS 2022 Checklist: Reporting Economic Evaluations
What the CHEERS 2022 checklist requires when reporting a health economic evaluation, how it differs from CHEERS 2013, and how it relates to CONSORT, S…
Levels of Evidence: The OCEBM 2011 Table, GRADE, and Where the Pyramid Breaks
A levels-of-evidence hierarchy ranks study design; GRADE rates certainty in one effect estimate for one outcome. This guide sets out what the OCEBM 20…
National Death Index: Research Guide and Access
A guide to the National Death Index (NDI) and NDI Plus: researcher eligibility, matching criteria, costs, and linking NCHS mortality files.…
NREVSS: Laboratory Viral Surveillance Guide
A researcher guide to CDC's NREVSS: understand weekly viral test reporting, percent positivity metrics, HHS regional trends, and public health data ac…
NSDUH: National Survey on Drug Use and Health
A comprehensive methodological guide to SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), detailing Public Use Files, restricted Research Data…
The EQUATOR Network: Which Reporting Guideline Does Your Study Need?
A study-design routing table for the EQUATOR Network's reporting guideline library — CONSORT, PRISMA, STROBE, SPIRIT, STARD, TRIPOD, ARRIVE, SQUIRE, C…
TREND Statement: Reporting Non-Randomised Behavioural Interventions
The TREND statement's 22-item checklist for reporting nonrandomised evaluations of behavioural and public-health interventions, and how it differs fro…

Grants Management & Research Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies: Research and Public Health Grantmaking Model
How Bloomberg Philanthropies structures its public health grantmaking, its focus areas, and how researchers and institutions can realistically engage…
DAAD Scholarships: Research Grants, EPOS & How to Apply
DAAD (Germany’s academic exchange service) is not a single scholarship. This guide breaks down its main research-relevant funding lines -- Research Gr…
Gates Foundation: Research Grant Programs (Global Health, Global Development, Discovery & Translational Sciences)
How the Gates Foundation (formerly Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) funds research through its Global Health, Global Development, and Discovery &a…
HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration): A Guide for Research Administrators
What HRSA is, its bureau structure, how HRSA funding differs from NIH funding, the NOFO-to-closeout award lifecycle, and the 45 CFR Part 75 compliance…
KEMRI: Research Centres, Programmes, and How to Get SERU Approval
KEMRI is Kenya’s national medical research institute. Its research centres and programmes, how the Scientific and Ethics Review Unit (SERU) reviews no…
National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR): What It Studies and How to Train There
NCTR is the FDA's own research center in Arkansas, not a grant funder. What it studies, who can train there, and how the ORISE summer program works.…
Novartis Foundation: Global Health Research Funding and Grant Programs
The Novartis Foundation is an independent global-health philanthropy, separate from Novartis's commercial drug R&D. This guide covers its structure, c…
Writing a PCORI Research Proposal: Merit Review Criteria and Patient-Centeredness Requirements
How PCORI's merit review criteria differ from NIH and NSF, and what patient-centeredness and stakeholder engagement requirements mean for your proposa…

Research Data Management

Health Data Research Service (HDRS): What It Is
What the UK Health Data Research Service (HDRS) is, where it came from, what it will provide, how it is funded and governed, and how it differs from H…
Indigenous Health Equity Fund: What It Funds and What It Means for Data Governance
A guide to the Indigenous Health Equity Fund (ISC-administered, $2B/10yr): funding streams, eligibility, and the OCAP/CARE data governance obligations…
NEISS (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System): Researcher Guide
What NEISS is, how the CPSC's hospital emergency department sample works, how to access the data, and the limits to know before analysing it.…
NSCH: National Survey of Children's Health Data Guide
Where to find NSCH (National Survey of Children's Health) files, the codebook and the guidance to read before analysis.…
UK Biobank Data Access: Tiers, Cost, and How to Apply
UK Biobank's 500,000-participant cohort is one of the most heavily used population-health resources in research -- but access requires a scoped applic…

Research Tools & Software

BRFSS Questionnaire, Codebook, and Data Guide
A researcher guide to locating the CDC BRFSS questionnaire, downloading annual codebooks and datasets, and executing complex survey weighting with _LL…
CDC WONDER Underlying Cause of Death: Data Guide
A step-by-step researcher guide to CDC WONDER underlying cause of death mortality data, covering ICD-10 lists, age-adjusted rates, and API integration…
Covidence vs. Rayyan vs. DistillerSR: Systematic Review Software ComparedComparison
Covidence, Rayyan, and DistillerSR compared on screening workflow, deduplication, PRISMA flow diagrams, data extraction, licensing, and regulatory aud…
NHANES Variable Search: Research Data Guide
Search CDC NHANES variables, interpret online codebooks, download XPT files, merge by SEQN, and apply survey weights correctly for secondary data anal…
The PubMed Advanced Search Builder: Numbered History, Field Tags, and Reading Search Details
The Advanced Search page gives you a Builder, a numbered History and a Search Details expander. The third is the one that matters: PubMed routinely ru…

Laboratory Operations & Safety

Health Hazard Evaluation (NIOSH HHE): Who Can Request One and How It Works
NIOSH health hazard evaluation (HHE): who can request one, what a request must contain, the two response paths, and how reports stay confidential.…
Public Health Emergency: Definition, US Section 319 Declarations and WHO PHEIC
How a US section 319 public health emergency differs from a WHO PHEIC: who declares each, how long it lasts, and where preparedness fits.…
SUDORS: The State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System
What SUDORS is, which three record types feed it, how it grew since 2016, and what researchers should check before using it.…

Research Integrity & Compliance

CMS Data Use Agreement (DUA) Mechanics for Research Data
How the CMS Data Use Agreement process works for researchers accessing Medicare and Medicaid claims data: LDS vs. RIF file types, the ResDAC applicati…
NHRC Nepal Ethical Approval: Online Submission, Fees and ERB Review Timeline
How ethical approval works at the Nepal Health Research Council: the IRERP online portal that replaced the old ERB system, whether your proposal goes…
Resolución 8430 de 1993: Colombia's Research Ethics and Risk-Classification Rules
Colombia's foundational research-ethics regulation: the sin riesgo / riesgo mínimo / riesgo mayor risk categories with real examples, informed-consent…

Laboratory Compliance & Quality

CLIA Certification: Certificate Types, Complexity Categories, and Whether Your Lab Needs One
A guide to CLIA certification under 42 CFR Part 493: the five certificate types, waived/moderate/high complexity categories, and the research-lab exem…

Laboratory Equipment & Instrumentation

Half Face Respirator: Types, APF 10 and What to Check
What a half face respirator is, how its types and NIOSH filter labels differ, and the OSHA fit-test, cartridge and care rules.…

Key terms

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