PUBLIC-HEALTH SURVEILLANCE FOR CHRONIC CONDITIONS - A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR DECISIONS

In this paper we investigate the important contribution of multiple pu blic health surveillance systems to policy in chronic disease control and prevention, We show that, typically, surveillance for chronic dise ases relies on multiple data sources, often created for another purpos e. We also define the concept of burden for chronic conditions based o n data from multiple sources. An example from a state illustrates a mo del for combining data for use in policy development. These applicatio ns illustrate the central role of statistical methods in ensuring the appropriate use of data from multiple surveillance systems.