Behavioral Risk and Injury Statistics

Behavioral Health Risks of Pennsylvania Adults
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an annual telephone survey implemented nationwide under a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1989, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has released annual reports using BRFSS data on various health risk behaviors, such as smoking, drinking, seat belt usage and health status.

Behavioral Health Risks for Local Areas
In 2002 Pennsylvania began offering the BRFSS Local Sampling Program to individual counties or multi-county regions within the state. Through the voluntary Local Sampling Program, an oversample is obtained for a particular region, allowing for more precise estimates and the addition of local questions to the BRFSS questionnaire.

Tobacco Statistics
Tobacco data are available from a variety of sources in addition to the BRFSS. The Pennsylvania Department of Health produces reports related to tobacco use using data from surveys such as the PA Adult Tobacco Survey and the PA Youth Tobacco Survey. Topics include smoking prevalence, quit attempts and the beliefs and behaviors that impact use of tobacco and its health effects.

Injury Statistics
Using PA death and hospital discharge data, the Pennsylvania Department of Health produces several reports on topics related to violence and injury. Reports cover unintentional falls, poisonings, motor vehicle accidents, firearm violence and a variety of other injuries, suicides and homicides.