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About NJSHAD

The New Jersey State Health Assessment Data (NJSHAD) System provides access to public health datasets, statistics, and information on the health status of New Jerseyans in five ways, each corresponding to an item in the menu bar above.
Health Topics
Community Profiles
  • Community Profiles take data points from multiple indicator reports and show them together for a selected community.
  • Comparable statewide and U.S. values are shown alongside the community data values.
  • Community selections include all 21 counties and the 4 largest racial/ethnic groups in New Jersey.
Other Data and Resources
  • A small handful of NJSHAD data and information pages that are not part of the Indicator Report or Dataset Queries sections are linked here.
  • This section also contains links to other sources of New Jersey health data outside of NJSHAD.
Indicator Reports
What are indicator reports?
  • Indicator reports are data-based reports that indicate the public health status of a population. So, "indicator reports" is short for "public health status indicator reports."
  • Other names that are sometimes used for this type of report are data briefs, health status reports, or health indicator profiles.
  • NJSHAD indicator reports are also similar to fact sheets but give more accompanying and supporting data than what is typically shown on a single-page fact sheet.
  • What's different about NJSHAD indicator reports is that they are interconnected with related reports, can be viewed one graph at a time or in full, are only published online, and are updated with new data, as opposed to being a point-in-time snapshot report.

How do I use NJSHAD indicator reports?
  • Each report is on a specific health topic.
  • These reports show the status of a public health issue through the use of trend and bar graphs, data tables, and explanatory text.
  • All NJSHAD Indicator Reports follow the same format and consist of
    • a Default View covering the main point of the health topic and
    • a link to a Full Report View (on the left navigation menu) that provides much more information such as
      • how New Jersey compares to the U.S.,
      • health disparity issues,
      • and services available to the public.
  • Reports are grouped by topic in the Health Topics Index and by program or initiative in the Initiative/Program Index and related indicator reports are linked within each report.
  • There is also an Alphabetical Index for those interested in a single topic or to peruse the entire list of available reports.
  • A more detailed overview is given on the About Indicator Reports page.
Dataset Queries
What are dataset queries?
  • Dataset queries are a way for you to make your own tables and graphs using our data.
  • Web-based data query systems (WDQS) are widely used across the field of public health and you will find them on many state and federal government websites.
  • Queries allow users to create customized data tables and graphs of publicly available, deidentified numerical public health datasets through the use of user-defined filtering criteria to control what data are retrieved.

How do I use the query system?
  • In NJSHAD's query system, you first choose the dataset you're interested in (e.g., births or deaths).
  • Then you choose the way you want to measure the data (e.g., counts or rates).
  • Then you walk through several steps on the query builder page to narrow down your selection. You may only want data for a specific year or county. You may want to compare male vs. female or different age groups. The choices for each dataset and measure vary, but the process and the query builder pages are all set up the same so once you get the hang of it for one dataset and measure, you'll have no problem using the rest of the query system.
  • A more detailed overview is given on the About Queries page.
  • There are tips, a tutorial, and a detailed step-by-step video demonstration on the Query System Help page.

Who should be using the query system?
  • Anyone can use the query system but the queries are primarily designed for use by public health and health care professionals with an epidemiology or statistics background who need very specific and detailed data.
Help
  • If you have not found the information you need or if you have questions, please check the main Help page, the Query Help page, and FAQs page for additional information and resources.
Contact
  • If you still can not find the information you need, please do not hesitate to contact the NJDOH Center for Health Statistics by emailing
  • All e-mails will be answered within one business day, but usually sooner.
Questions, Concerns, and Feedback
  • Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions.
  • Your feedback is very valuable in helping us provide a site that meets the public's and your data needs.

Operating Systems and Browsers

NJSHAD was developed for desktop using Windows 7 and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers may not render pages properly. Most notably, Internet Explorer will not show pages or run queries properly. Make sure your browser version is up to date. More info...
The information provided above is from the Department of Health's NJSHAD web site (https://nj.gov/health/shad). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: " Retrieved Mon, 18 March 2024 22:54:10 from Department of Health, New Jersey State Health Assessment Data Web site: https://nj.gov/health/shad ".

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