Connecticut Tracking Program

Website: Stateofhealth.ct.govexternal icon
Email: dphctepht@ct.gov

Mission:

The Connecticut (CT) Tracking Program’s mission is to collect, analyze and share data related to environmental health in order to educate and inform our stakeholders and communities.

Quick Stats:

• Connecticut is the third smallest state by area, but is the fourth most densely populated state. It has 169 towns and 65 local health agencies.
• Hartford, the capitol city, is within a 2.5 hour drive of the following cities: New York City; Boston, MA; Providence, RI; and Newark, NJ.
• 58% (1.8 million acres) of the state’s land area is forest land.
• About 72% of the state’s housing stock was built before 1980. As a result, a large proportion of residents experience housing-related health issues like exposure to lead paint and worsening asthma symptoms.

Unique Data:

In addition to the set of standard data collected and displayed by all state and local tracking programs, individual programs may host data that are important to their populations. CT’s unique data include:

• Reportable Diseasesexternal icon

The CT Tracking Program partnered with the state health department’s Infectious Disease Section to include data on more than 20 reportable conditions including influenza, Legionellosis, and Lyme disease.

Accomplishments:

Providing Local-Level Hospital and Emergency Department Data: Public health practitioners strive to better understand the relationships among environment, behavior, and health in local areas or small populations at the sub-county geographic level; however, data often are available only at state or county levels. To help fill this data gap, the CT Tracking Program processed 20 years of the state’s hospital discharge and emergency department (ED) data through a custom geocoder, making it possible to view these data at sub-county (census tract) level. Users can access these local-level hospital and ED data on the CT Tracking Data Explorerexternal icon.