Background Information & Data - HED 395 - Planning Health Promotion Programs - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

What is Background Information?

Background information provides a general overview of a research topic including important terms and concepts, relevant names of people or places, and dates of specific events.

These resources are especially helpful during the idea generation stage. Finding good background information on a general topic can help you turn that topic into a research question.

They will also help you determine what vocabulary and background concepts you will need to identify relevant peer-reviewed sources in the databases and identify more specific areas of your topic that you may want to research further.

Stat!Ref
Most current edition. 25 users.

Updated regularly. Provides full text access to key medical reference sources and textbook and includes Board Vitals. Stat!Ref is now part of TDS Health.
Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

Updated daily. Provides over 160 full-text journals in medicine, nursing, allied and consumer health. Includes full-text reference books, pamphlets, overviews of clinical topics, and indexing and abstracts for over 1500 additional titles covering patient and consumer health information.
Health Source: Consumer Edition
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

Updated daily. Features searchable full text for nearly 190 journals as well as abstracts and indexing for over 200 general health, nutrition and professional health care publications. Contains information on health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. Also includes many health research books, including books published by the People's Medical Society. Other features include thousands of essays from Clinical Reference Systems.
SAGE Knowledge
Selected titles. Unlimited users.

Platform for Sage eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles, and more. Only select ebook titles purchased by the UT Libraries are fully accessible.
For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide
SAGE Research Methods
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

A research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. Contains content from over 720 books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks, the entire “Little Green Book,” and ""Little Blue Book” series, two Major Works collating a selection of journal articles, and specially commissioned videos. Researchers can explore methods and concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. Since Sage Research Methods focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more.
For Tips and Tutorials, please see the Sage Research Methods Tutorials page and the Sage Research Methods LibGuide.
Gale eBooks
Most current edition. Unlimited users.

Updated regularly. A database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources. Fully searchable across all files. A list of sources included in our subscription is available.
For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

Statistical Abstract of the United States
Most current edition. Unlimited users.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States is a compilation of social, political and economic statistics. The focus is on national data, but some tables cover regions, states, cities, and comparative international statistics. Each table identifies the source of the data. Tables can be downloaded in xls or pdf format.
Divided into broad sections such as Population, Health and Nutrition, Education, Foreign Commerce and Aid, Prices and many others, the database can be searched or browsed to retrieve results that can then be narrowed by source, geography, time period, subject, and other breakdowns.
Statista
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.

Statista provides statistical data from thousands of institutions and sources. It provides access to data from market and opinion research institutions, as well as from business organizations and government agencies.
Statista includes data on more than 85,000 topics from 18,000 sources. About 20 percent of the total data in Statista comes from sources available free online, such as the World Bank and the U.S. Census, but the data also includes numerous exclusive sources which include industry, marketing, and trade groups. Much of the data is related to marketing, demographic, government and industry information, and is international in scope. Data can be downloaded in JPG, PowerPoint and Excel.
While historical and time series data are not a focus of Statista, the metadata about each table provides all the necessary information to go to the table’s source, where historical information may be available.

US Census Bureau Data Links
Population estimates, demographic profiles, Survey of Business Owners, and other information from the Census Bureau.

World dataBank
1960 - present. 1 user.

Updated regularly. Free access to more than 7,000 indicators from over 20 datasets on world development, including World Development Indicators and Global Development Finance. Dates of coverage begin in 1960 but vary by dataset and country. You can create reports with tables, charts, and maps and export the results in standard formats.
Historical Statistics of the United States
Colonial times - present. Unlimited users.

Updated regularly. Provides a standard source for the quantitative facts of American history. Expands and revises information provided in Historical Statistics of the United States, previously produced by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and includes thirty years of new data and scholarship. Footnotes and explanatory information provide instructional information about the data and sources of the data.
Permits users to graph individual tables and create customized tables and spreadsheets reflecting particular areas of interest. Data is downloadable in Excel or CSV; also download entire groups of tables as a zip file.

More demographic and statistics sources

Perform a scoped Google search for statistical information online. Here's an example of a search that is limited to .gov webpages:

Search: Native American health statistics site:gov

Other endings:

site:edu
site:org

Recommended News Sources

PressReader
60 day archive. 3 users.

Updated daily. Provides a full-color and full-page collection of newspapers from around the world,. Includes over 1000 titles from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the United States. A 60-day archive is also available to browse by country, language, and newspaper title, and to search full text of articles, photograph captions, and headlines.
Once inside the newspaper, click on a headline to read the article or zoom in to read the article as it appears in print.
We have a limited number of users for this database. Please select the logout option before you leave your session. When the limit is reached, a username and password prompt will probably be displayed. If this happens, simply wait 15 minutes and then try the link again.

New York Times Health News
Science section of the New York Times national newspaper.
Medical News Today
Includes over 278,600 articles spanning hundreds of medical topics

Ethnic NewsWatch
1985 - present. Unlimited users.

Updated monthly. Provides full-text coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in America (some international coverage). Includes more than 400,000 full-text articles from 200 publications.
Latin American Newsstand
2005 - present. Unlimited users.

Updated daily. Provides full text access to 41 newspapers from Puerto Rico and 11 Latin American countries with complete articles in ASCII format. Includes papers from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Content is in Spanish and Portuguese.
Key newspaper titles include El Universal, Mexico City's largest-selling newspaper; O Globo (Brazil); La Nacion (Argentina); and El Mercurio (Chile). Three business titles, El Economista (Mexico), Valor Economico (Brazil), and Portafolio (Colombia) are also important resources for researchers.
A complete title list is available.

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Other Resources

Nutrient Data Laboratory
Includes searchable USDA nutrient database via the US Deptartment of Agriculture.
Health.gov Dietary Guidelines
This is a joint publication from the Department of Human Services (HHS) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
USDA Food Composition Database
Searchable database of nutrition values for over 5900 foods.
Office of Dietary Supplements
This is a collaboration between the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements and the National Library of Medicine.
Medline Plus: Sports Fitness
Medline Plus is a portal to a huge collection of sport and exercise related Internet resources that cover everything from the latest research news, hot topics in sports training, exercise statistics, etc.
Women's Sports Foundation
The Women’s Sports Foundation was established in 1974 to advance the lives of women and girls through sports.