Reduced-Item Food Audits Based on the Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys.

Introduction: The community food environment may contribute to obesity by influencing food choice. Store and restaurant audits are increasingly common methods for assessing food environments, but are time consuming and costly. A valid, reliable brief measurement tool is needed.

Optimizing data collection for public health decisions: a data mining approach.

Background: Collecting data can be cumbersome and expensive. Lack of relevant, accurate and timely data for research to inform policy may negatively impact public health. The aim of this study was to test if the careful removal of items from two community nutrition surveys guided by a data mining technique called feature selection, can (a) identify a reduced dataset, while (b) not damaging the signal inside that data.

Second births to teenage mothers: risk factors for low birth weight and preterm birth.

Context: Teenagers are more likely than older women to have a low-birth-weight infant or a preterm birth, and the risks may be particularly high when they have a second birth. Identifying predictors of these outcomes in second teenage births is essential for developing preventive strategies.

Methods: Birth certificate data for 1993-2002 were linked to identify second births to Milwaukee teenagers.

Prevalence of children with special health care needs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: data from the Milwaukee metropolitan statistical area.

Background: The Milwaukee Health Department and the Wisconsin Southeast Regional Center for Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) were interested in understanding the level of need and prevalence of CSHCN in the city of Milwaukee. It was determined that a survey of the Milwaukee area was needed to obtain a prevalence estimate.

Methods: A survey to identify children with special health care needs in the Milwaukee metropolitan statistical area (MSA) was conducted using the CSHCN Screener.