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A Profile of Health Among Massachusetts Adults, 2012: Results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System



Details

  • Corporate Authors:
    Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
  • Description:
    Introduction: The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a continuous multimode survey of adults ages 18 and older and is conducted in all states as a collaboration between the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state departments of health. The landline telephone portion of the survey has been conducted in Massachusetts since 1986; a cell phone component was added in 2011. The BRFSS collects data on a variety of health risk factors, preventive behaviors, chronic conditions, and emerging public health issues. The information obtained in this survey assists in identifying the need for health interventions, monitoring the effectiveness of existing interventions and prevention programs, developing health policy and legislation, and measuring progress toward attaining state and national health objectives. Each year, the BRFSS includes a core set of questions developed by the CDC. In 2012, these questions addressed health status, health care access and utilization, overweight and obesity status, asthma, diabetes, immunizations, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, HIV/AIDS testing and other selected public health topics. In addition to the core CDC questions, the Massachusetts Health Survey Program, in collaboration with other Massachusetts Department of Public Health programs, added a number of topics to the surveillance instrument including environmental tobacco exposure, cancer survivorship, sexual violence, and other selected topics. In 2012, 18,325 landline interviews and 3,398 cell phone interviews were completed among Massachusetts adults. To increase the number of respondents who belong to racial and/or ethnic minority groups, the cities of Boston, Brockton, Lowell, Lynn, New Bedford, Quincy, Springfield, and Worcester were oversampled. Interviews were administered in the respondents' preferred language, with a choice of English, Spanish, or Portuguese. About This Report: This report summarizes selected results from the combined landline and cell phone portions of the 2012 Massachusetts BRFSS. In each section of the report, a description of survey questions used to obtain estimates for key variables is provided along with an explanation of the importance of each indicator for public health. Tables detailing the overall estimates and estimates by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (gender, age, race-ethnicity, disability status, education, annual household income, and Massachusetts health service regions) are provided in the main body of the report in the form of crude percentages. In the Appendix of the report, tables are presented detailing age-adjusted percentages for 2012 indicators and their 95% confidence intervals. United States (US) median data for all participating states and territories for variables with comparable national data are presented for 2012 in a separate table. The Healthy People 2020 objectives are presented separately as a new challenging goal for public health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
  • Subjects:
  • Keywords:
  • Publisher:
    Massachusetts Department of Public Health
  • Document Type:
    Text
  • Funding:
    Cooperative Agreement
  • Genre:
    Report
  • Place as Subject:
  • CIO:
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
  • Topic:
    Workplace Safety & Health
  • Location:
    North America
  • Pages in Document:
    1-120
  • NIOSHTIC Number:
    nn:20061394
  • Citation:
    Boston, MA: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2014 Apr; :1-120
  • Contact Point Address:
    Bruce Cohen, Division of Research and Epidemiology, Bureau of Health Information, Statistics, Research and Evaluation, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02108-4619
  • Email:
    Bruce.Cohen@state.ma.us
  • Federal Fiscal Year:
    2014
  • Performing Organization:
    Massachusetts State Department of Public Health
  • Peer Reviewed:
    False
  • Start Date:
    20050701
  • Source Full Name:
    A profile of health among Massachusetts adults, 2012: results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
  • End Date:
    20260630
  • Collection(s):
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:bca440db44618fc5a888a76f32ed98fc322b97f99cc8f7722494504be8bd8da57a3afccc57ca3960d9b36eefdb997a7f983d58da33a089d219427f09b5d2b533
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 1.16 MB ]
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