American Community Survey 101: Overview and Application in Occupational Health Surveillance – 4/23/2015
Speakers: Kim Brown, US Census Bureau, MyDzung Chu, MSPH, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
Objectives:The American Community Survey (ACS), conducted by the US Census Bureau, is a nationwide, ongoing survey of over 3.5 million households in the United States. The ACS data are released annually and provide reliable and timely information on a variety of demographic, social, economic, and housing topics at the national, state, and sub-state levels. The ACS data contain much information relevant to occupational health surveillance, such as industry, occupation, labor force status (e.g. employed, unemployed), class of worker (e.g. private, local govt., federal govt.), geographic location of work and journey to work, income, and health insurance coverage. This information can be used for descriptive statistics of the working population by demographic or social characteristics and at different geographic levels. ACS data can also be used to generate estimates for worker counts or full-time equivalents (FTEs) for the calculation of occupational injury and illness rates.
- Describe basic features of the ACS and what it has to offer
- Describe the various data tools used to access ACS data
- Describe the difference between 1, 3, and 5 year data
- Describe how to use PUMS as a data option
- Discuss how a state occupational health surveillance program has used statewide ACS data in its occupational surveillance work.