Understand the conditions behind the data
Every article is written in plain language from authoritative public sources (CDC, NIH institutes, NCI, MedlinePlus and HRSA). Each factual statement links to its reference, and Vellora’s own explanations are marked as notes. Each article shows the date its sources were last verified.
Learning resources
- Cardiovascular health
High blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke and their risk factors.
- How to read the data
Estimates, observed outcomes and associations, with a live interval example.
- Research guide
Seven steps to investigating county health disparities with Vellora.
- Glossary
Searchable definitions of public-health and medical terms, with sources.
Articles
21 articles
Cardiovascular Disease
4 articles
Understanding Cardiovascular Disease
An introduction to the major types of heart and blood-vessel disease and how they are measured in population health.
Coronary Artery Disease
What coronary artery disease is, its recognised risk factors, and how prevalence and mortality data describe it.
Stroke and Cardiovascular Risk
How stroke relates to cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, and what county estimates can and cannot show.
High Blood Pressure (Hypertension)
What high blood pressure is, how it is classified and diagnosed, its risk factors, and what county estimates of diagnosed high blood pressure can show.
Cancer
3 articles
Understanding Cancer
A foundational overview of cancer as a group of diseases and the vocabulary used in cancer statistics.
Lung Cancer
An overview of lung cancer, its established risk factors and the role of screening, with notes on data availability in Texas.
Cancer Incidence, Mortality and Screening
Explains the difference between incidence, mortality, survivorship and ‘cancer history’ measures, and why they must not be confused.
Diabetes
2 articles
Understanding Diabetes
An introduction to the main types of diabetes and how diagnosed diabetes is measured in surveys.
Type 2 Diabetes and Population Health
Population-level patterns in type 2 diabetes and the social and access factors researchers study alongside it.
Respiratory Diseases
2 articles
Asthma
What asthma is, common triggers studied in public health, and what adult asthma estimates represent.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
An overview of COPD, its principal risk factors and the limits of self-reported diagnosis data.
Neurological Conditions
3 articles
Understanding Neurological Disorders
A broad introduction to disorders of the brain and nervous system, and why county-level data for them is scarce.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
An introduction to ALS and an explanation of why no county-level ALS measure is presented on Vellora.
Aphasia and Neurological Communication Disorders
What aphasia is, its relationship to stroke and other neurological events, and the absence of county prevalence data.
Kidney Disease
2 articles
Chronic Kidney Disease
An overview of chronic kidney disease and the status of county-level kidney measures (historical only).
Kidney Health and Cardiovascular Risk
How kidney health and cardiovascular risk factors are studied together in population health.
Obesity
2 articles
Understanding Obesity as a Public Health Indicator
How obesity is defined and measured in surveys, and the strengths and limits of BMI as a population indicator.
Obesity and Chronic Disease
The research relationships between obesity and chronic conditions, and why county correlations do not show individual causation.
Mental Health
3 articles
Depression
An introduction to depression and what survey-based depression estimates do and do not capture.
Anxiety and Mental Health
An overview of anxiety disorders within mental health more broadly, and the absence of a direct county anxiety measure.
Mental Health Access and Population Trends
How access to mental health care is studied, and how to read population mental health indicators responsibly.