The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, tracks nationwide health trends and reports its findings in several periodicals, especially its Advance Data series, its annual HIV/AIDS Surveillance Reports, and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. The CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control provides data about deaths and disability caused by accidents and violence. The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) provides a complete statistical overview of the nation's health in its annual Health, United States. The NCHS periodicals National Vital Statistics Reports and Vital and Health Statistics detail U.S. birth and death data and trends.

The National Health Interview Surveys offer information about the lifestyles, health behaviors, and health risks of Americans. The CDC publishes Health Risks in the United States: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System—the results of surveys in each state asking adults questions about a wide range of behaviors affecting their health. Working with other agencies and professional organizations, the CDC helped produce Healthy People 2010, which serves as a blueprint for improving the health of Americans.

Mental health and illness in the United States were detailed in the landmark report, Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (1999), and follow-up reports including Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity (2001) and the Report of the Surgeon General's Conference on Children's Mental Health: A National Action Agenda (2001). Issued in 2003, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America, a report from the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, recommended ways to improve access to effective mental health treatment for Americans. In addition, the Center for Mental Health Services reports data describing the nation's mental health status and services in its periodic Mental Health, United States.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provide definitions, epidemiological data, and research findings about a comprehensive range of medical and public health subjects. An NIH institute, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, defines and describes a range of alternative, complementary, and integrative medical practices. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences provides information about environmental hazards and behaviors that jeopardize health.

Medical, public health, and nursing journals offer a wealth of disease-specific information and research findings. The studies cited in this edition are drawn from a range of professional publications, including the Archives of General Psychiatry, Journal of the American Medical Association, New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Public Health Reports, and Lancet.

The American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts and Figures 2005 (2005) provided valuable data, as did the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation's Perinatal Profiles: Statistics for Monitoring State Maternal and Infant Health (2003) The Alzheimer's Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association also are excellent resources for information about the epidemiology of diseases, treatments, and clinical trials. Many other professional associations, voluntary medical organizations, and foundations dedicated to research, education, and advocacy related to other specific medical conditions and disabling diseases proved useful sources for up-to-date information for this edition.

The Gale Group thanks the Gallup Organization for the use of its public opinion research data and cogent analyses of Americans' perceptions of their health.