The Value of the American Community Survey: Smart Government, Competitive Businesses, and Informed Citizens

Association of Insurance and Community-Level Socioeconomic Status With Treatment and Outcome of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Pharynx

“…The NCDB is a standardized hospital-based cancer registry undergoing a series of quality assurance measures and checks while collecting information on 70% of newly diagnosed cancer cases annually, thus decreasing selection bias risks that may be associated with smaller studies. 17 However, intrinsic limitations to any large database retrospective analysis must also be considered, with lack of certain data variables possibly leading to a confounding effect of important factors that could not be investigated in our study. Cases from the NCDB are only reported by Commission on Cancer-accredited facilities, thus possibly introducing hospital-selection bias.…”

“…The NCDB contains hospital registry data collected from more than 1500 Commission on Cancer-accredited facilities representing 70% of newly diagnosed cancer cases annually in the United States. 17 The NCDB is a joint project of the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society. The data used in our investigation are derived from a deidentified NCDB file.…”

“…Insurance status was identified as the patient's primary insurance carrier at the time of initial diagnosis and/or treatment. 17 For each patient's area of residence, the median household income and measure of educational attainment were estimated by matching the patient's zip code recorded at the time of diagnosis against files derived from the 2012 American Community Survey data from 2008 through 2012 and adjusted for 2012 inflation with regard to income. Categories supplied by the NCDB for insurance status include uninsured, private, Medicaid, and Medicare.…”

“…18 The survey is conducted by collecting data from a random sample of housing unit addresses every month, for a total of 3.5 million housing units contacted each year. 18 The US Census Bureau presents annual estimates of median household income and poverty by state and other smaller geographic units based on data collected in the American Community Survey. 19 Five-year income and poverty estimates are available for all geographic units, including census tracts and block groups by pooling 5 years of American Community Survey data.…”

Can a Water Smart Grid Help Society Achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Water as a Human Right?

“…While the length of the questionnaire is not assumed to effect cost of giving the survey, in 2013 it was estimated to cost respondents $58 million or $0.56 million per question annually [66]. Moreover, collecting this data where at the local levels where it is needed would reduce reliance of state and local governments and private business firms on the census, dissemination of which cost the US Census Bureau $114 million in [64].…”