South Carolina Community Assessment Network (SCAN) is an interactive data retrieval system for community assessment, planning and health practices. Users can create tables, charts, and maps according to their interests and specifications at the DHEC Region, County, or Zip-Code level. Birth Certificate Data, Death Certificate Data, and demographics were the first data sets available on the SCAN system. Other available data sets include PRAMS (Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System), Pregnancy data, Fetal Death data, Mother's Health and Lifestyle data, Infant and Child Health data, Infant Mortality data, Childhood Lead Surveillance, Cancer Incidence and Mortality data from the SC Central Cancer Registry (SCCCR)and Live Birth Infant Death Cohort data. The newest module is the Community Profile Module which profiles the indicators of the public health interest across South Carolina.

Each data set has a series of pages related to it: Create a Table, Example, Definitions, Variable Information, Generate a Map, FAQ's, and Links. Viewing each of these pages will help SCAN users become more familiar with the system and with the data sets. SCAN's animated formulas are an excellent educational tool and additional mapping help pages are linked to all interactive maps.

The "Create a Table" page allows the user to select primary variables of interest for their table's rows and columns. After this basic table structure is defined, the user may continue through the step-by-step process to further specify restrictions on additional variables that they want to include in their output table. Currently, the user can generate statistics at the county, zip code, and DHEC region level. To supplement these tables the user can also map these statistics out to either the county or zip code level. Most data sets allow users to create bar charts and trend lines from the data selected.

The "Generate a Map" page allows the user to create interactive maps for any of the variables the user has selected. These maps display the statistics that the user has selected as well as supplemental reference information such as the location of health regions, health facilities, major cities, and street networks. The user can query or ask questions about this data through the mapping interface to determine for example what counties have a population above a certain threshold or how many health facilities are in a specific user defined area.

For select variables in each data set, the user may click in the output table in order to view more detailed data. For example, in the Death Certificate data set, users can "drill" into the causes of death for more detailed information: Cancer --> Leukemia--> Lymphoid Leukemia. Users can specify the type of numerical calculations in their output table. Numerical counts, row or column percentages, and unadjusted or age-adjusted rates are among the user's options. These options vary from data set to data set. Once the output table is created, the user can download it and paste the results into Microsoft Excel in order to produce charts or graphs. Downloading instructions are described in great detail on the FAQ page.

2008 South Carolina Community Assessment Network Handout

If more detailed analysis is needed such as linear regression, chi-square tests, GIS mapping, and other statistical tests/analysis please contact the Division of Biostatistics staff.