About the MN Tracking Program

Connecting health and the environment: The Minnesota Tracking Program literally keeps track of the many parts of environment that can influence health. The environment includes chemicals in our homes, air, and water, as well as parts of the physical and social environment, like traffic and poverty.

Learn more here: MN Environmental Public Health Tracking - MN Dept. of Health

Minnesota is part of the CDC National Environmental Tracking Network.


About the MN Data Access Portal

Minnesota Public Health Data Access (Data access portal) portal is an online data resource designed to provide public access to Minnesota environmental public health data including environmental risk factors and health. Information may be presented as interactive charts and figures, maps, custom tables generated using a query tool, or County profiles across a range of environmental health indicators. In many cases, data are available to download.

MN Data information may be used to:

  • Help people and communities make healthy choices

  • Protect children, the environment, and future generations

  • Track and evaluate the effectiveness of public health actions and policy

MN Data portal was created and is maintained by the MN Environmental Public Health Tracking Program at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). The goal is to support MDH’s mission to protect, maintain and improve the health of all Minnesotans by providing timely, high-quality data to the public.

Minnesota Public Health Data Access portal is used by anyone who wants to access data and learn more about health, the environment and other risk factors. We find that the Data access portal is of particular interest to:

  • Public health and environmental professionals: to provide better access to data to help create more effective programs; inform assessments and planning

  • Health care professionals: to provide better care by knowing what public health issues most impact their communities

  • Researchers: to help understand the relationship between public health and the environment

  • Policy makers: to develop and evaluate policies and programs that protect health

  • Citizens: to have a greater awareness of environmental and public health concerns in their communities, including health disparities.

  • Children’s health data, birth defects, immunizations and lead exposure.

  • Environmental exposures and hazards, like air and drinking water quality or lyme disease.

  • Health behaviors and risk factors, like smoking, obesity and poverty.

  • Healthy home information, like carbon monoxide or second-hand smoke.

MN Data portal was created and is maintained by the MN Environmental Public Health Tracking Program at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

Data for this site is collected through collaboration with multiple MDH programs, and in partnership with the state agencies, including the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Minnesota Department of Agriculture.

Plans include updates to county and sub-county data, adding new years of data (where data are available) and additional interactive maps. New topic areas and measures are explored and added each year.

MDH uses a systematic evaluation process to determine which new data topics will be added or expanded. Certain topics on the MN Data portal are available on the CDC National Environmental Public Health Tracking portal, which enables comparisons of standardized environmental health indicators.

Detailed information is available for each topic area (see “About the data” button found at the bottom of each page). These “About the data” pages provide important information to accurately interpret and communicate information about:

  • Data sources

  • Data limitations

  • Potential data uses

The Minnesota Public Health Data Access portal is updated continually to include additional data and features. If you would like to request data not on the portal or have comments about how we can improve this site, please contact us via email: heath.dataportal@state.mn.us

Summary-level data is provided at the state and county level. Some Minnesota county data are not shown or are totaled to protect privacy. For example, query results for asthma hospitalizations in some Minnesota counties with small populations are not provided to protect the individual privacy of county residents.

Data suppression (data not shown) is explained in this Centers for Disease Control & Prevention's (CDC) podcast. MDH follows Minnesota statutes to protect data privacy, including the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

The following is an example of the preferred format for citations:

Minnesota Department of Health. (2014, July 8). Asthma Hospitalizations: Basic Facts & Figures. Accessed from MN Public Health Access Data portal. Retrieved April 2016.

To learn more about the topics on the portal, please contact us at heath.dataportal@state.mn.us

Use the links below to explore additional state and national data resources related to public health, demographics, and the environment:

Health:

Demographics:

Environment:

Additional Links: