Monday: Learning Institute

A1. Health Data Interactive (HDI)

During this session, participants will be presented information on the purpose of the HDI, and given some examples of how to use the data. The presentation will include information on the types of data sources used to create HDI tables, some background information on how data are tabulated to be included in the HDI tables, and the strengths and limitations of the system. Uses of HDI will be illustrated, drawing from recent NCHS publications that used the pretabulated HDI data as a method of quickly obtaining data estimates. After that, participants will be presented with example questions that can be answered using information contained in the HDI, and then shown how to find and display the results in tables, charts, and maps as well as how to download the data for further manipulation. Participants will be given time to work on their own as well as with the group to utilize this data tool. [LI-17] [Hands-on]

Room: White Oak A

A2. Understanding and Analyzing Ambulatory Health Care Data: Basic National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)

The overall goal of the workshop is to provide a general overview of two records-based surveys of ambulatory medical care: NAMCS and NHAMCS. The session includes basic hands-on data analysis techniques using SAS and Stata. The 2012 NAMCS and 2011 NHAMCS public-use files will be used in these exercises. Attendance at this session is not required to attend the Advanced NAMCS and NHAMCS Hands-on Learning Institute, but is recommended for users new to NAMCS and NHAMCS. [LI-1] [Hands-on]

Room: Glen Echo

A3. Healthy People 2020: Maximizing Use of the New Online Data Tool

The Healthy People initiative provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans. This hands-on session will provide participants opportunities to practice using the Healthy People 2020 website, with an emphasis on DATA2020, the Healthy People 2020 interactive data tool, and the Leading Health Indicators. NCHS staff will be joined by staff from the Assistant Secretary for Health’s Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to guide participants through exercises to maximize the utility of online features, including searching for objectives using a variety of methods; accessing data, including measures of variability; charting data; and locating technical specifications for all objectives. [LI-19] [Hands-on]

Room: Brookside A-B

A4. International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD–10–CM): Procedure Coding System (PCS) Transition Overview and Understanding General Equivalence Mappings (GEMs)

The transition to ICD–10 code sets will have a significant impact on public health entities. This Learning Institute and hands-on session will provide an overview of why the United States is transitioning to ICD–10 code sets, who is affected by the transition, what CDC is doing to facilitate the transition, key differences between ICD–9–CM and ICD–10 code sets, and what some of the implementation issues will be for public health entities.

GEMs have been developed as a tool to assist with bidirectionally converting data between ICD–9–CM and ICD–10–CM/PCS code sets. This Learning Institute and hands-on session will review what GEMs are, their purpose and how they function, how to apply and interpret GEMs, steps for processing GEMs, and will conclude with highlights of the use of GEMs within CDC. [LI-21] [Hands-on]

Room: Forest Glen

A5. An Overview of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

Users new to NHIS data, or those who need a refresher, are encouraged to attend this workshop, which will include a brief introduction to the history, development, purpose, data accessibility, and current activities of the NHIS. Question content, sample design, weighting, and variance estimation will also be presented, along with two examples of research using the NHIS. [LI-6] [Lecture]

Room: Salon D

A6. Overview of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)

This session will provide an overview of NHANES, covering the sample design, survey operations, data collection, examination components, and data access for researchers. Key NHANES findings used to inform public health programs will also be presented. [LI13] [Lecture]

Room: Salon E

B1. Beginner’s Session: The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

Attendees will learn how to access data, create analytic files, and run basic statistical programs. NHIS staff members will be available to assist and answer questions. Participants should have some experience using SAS, but experience with NHIS data sets is not required. Assistance with Stata syntax and programs will also be provided. [LI-7] [Hands-on]

Room: White Oak A

B2. Analyzing Drug Data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)

This workshop is for anyone interested in using NAMCS and NHAMCS drug data. It presupposes a basic familiarity with the surveys. Since the 2006 survey year, NAMCS and NHAMCS have utilized Cerner Multum’s Lexicon therapeutic class categories and have produced a separate data file for drug ingredients. Characteristics and structure of the drug variables as they have changed over the years will be discussed, and SAS programs will be used to demonstrate techniques for analyzing current and trended medication data. [LI-4] [Hands-on]

Room: Glen Echo

B3. Understanding and Analyzing Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES): Overview and Basic Analyses

NHANES is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of children and adults in the United States. The focus of this session is to provide hands-on exercises in which attendees will be guided through basic statistical analyses using public-use NHANES data files. NHANES staff members will be available to assist and answer questions. Attendees will also be provided a brief overview of NHANES, including key components of the survey design. Data analysis will be conducted using SAS. Participants should have some experience using SAS, but experience with NHANES is not required. [LI-14] [Hands-on]

Room: Brookside A-B

B4. Finding Key Resources From the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

This workshop will include several learning modules that will show attendees how to locate statistical information for health research. Participants will be asked to solve a series of scenarios using the NCHS and CDC websites as the main data sources. [LI-20] [Hands-on]

Room: Forest Glen

B5. Mortality Data from the National Vital Statistics System, With Special Focus on Analyzing the Multiple Causes of Death

The goal for this session is to inform attendees about the program that produces national mortality data for the United States. We will present on how these data and information are put together, and also on the main mechanisms of dissemination of mortality data products. This will be followed by a detailed explanation of multiple cause data, including entity axis data and record axis data, and the analytic issues in using this data. The session will also show examples of multiple cause data using the online system WONDER (Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research). [LI-10] [Lecture]

Room: Salon D

B6. Cognitive Interviewing and Q-Suite: Methodology, Best Practices, and Tools

Cognitive interviewing is a qualitative question evaluation method used to evaluate the validity of survey questions. To facilitate and standardize the methodology, NCHS has designed the Q-Suite set of software applications, which includes both QNotes and QBank. QNotes is a software application designed to facilitate the analysis of cognitive interview findings, while QBank is a database with data linkage capabilities designed to make cognitive interview findings readily available to researchers and data users. This presentation will demonstrate the functions of both QNotes and QBank in the context of cognitive interview methodology. It will be useful for both those interested in question pretesting methodology as well as data users interested in bolstering validity. [LI-23] [Lecture]

Room: Salon E

C1. Health Indicators Warehouse (HIW): Web Access to Population Health Indicators

This hands-on session will feature an overview of the HIW and provide opportunities for participants to learn about the Warehouse, explore its many population health indicators, and practice viewing indicator data in various table, chart, and mapped formats. The Warehouse, developed and maintained by NCHS, is a key data hub of HHS’ Health Data Initiative and part of the Department’s open data efforts. The HIW allows users to view and download data and metadata from more than 1,200 indicators. The HIW’s Application Programming Interface will be introduced and possibilities for web application developers will be presented. [LI-18] [Hands-on]

Room: Brookside A-B

C2. Understanding and Analyzing Ambulatory Health Care Data: Advanced National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)

This workshop builds on the Basic NAMCS and NHAMCS session. This session includes advanced hands-on data analysis techniques using SAS and Stata. The 2012 NAMCS and 2011 NHAMCS public-use files will be used in these exercises. Exercises using the 2012 NAMCS will produce state and national estimates. The prerequisite for this class is either: 1) a working knowledge of either SAS or Stata or 2) attendance at the Basic NAMCS and NHAMCS Hands-on Learning Institute. [LI-2] [Hands-on]

Room: Glen Echo

C3. Advanced Session: The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)

Using data from NHIS, attendees will learn how to merge multiple years of data files, access and use the NHIS imputed income files, and use SAS-callable SUDAAN in logistic regression and other multivariate analyses. NHIS staff members will be available to assist and answer questions. Participants should have some experience using SAS and some experience with NHIS datasets. Assistance with Stata syntax and programs will also be provided. [LI-8] [Hands-on]

Room: White Oak A

C4. The Building Blocks for Using What We Eat in America

This session will help participants gain an understanding of the NHANES complex dietary data and documentation, commonly called What We Eat in America, and the technical support files of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies. Particular emphasis will be given to the collection and dissemination of dietary data, including tools for food and beverage analysis, summarized dietary data tables, and dietary data briefs. Participants will learn what information on foods and beverages, nutrient intakes, and sociodemographic characteristics is included in the data files and key points for consideration in dietary analysis. The dietary data components that will be addressed include food codes and descriptions, WWEIA Food Categories, Food Patterns Equivalents Database components, nutrient values, combination codes, eating occasions, food source, day of the week, and time of day. The basic steps in using WWEIA NHANES data will be discussed, with special attention given to identifying appropriate types of analysis. [LI-15] [Hands-on]

Room: Forest Glen

C5. Getting the Data Right: Best Practices for the National Vital Statistics Birth, Fetal Death, and Linked Birth and Infant Health Data Sets

U.S. vital statistics perinatal data are widely used to describe the demographic and health characteristics of women at birth, to monitor trends in maternal and infant health, and to improve our understanding of poor pregnancy outcomes. This session will present an overview of the content, availability, and uses of the national vital statistics birth, fetal death, and linked birth and infant death data sets. The status of the 2003 revisions to the birth certificate and an overview of data quality issues will be discussed. Brief highlights on recently available items, such as source of payment for the delivery, prepregnancy body mass index, and trends in fetal and infant mortality will also be presented. [LI-11] [Lecture]

Room: Salon D

C6 Residential Care Communities and Adult Day Services Centers: New Survey Data From the 2014 National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP)

This Learning Institute workshop will present an overview of the 2014 NSLTCP, which included both survey data on residential care communities and adult day services centers and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrative data on nursing homes, home health agencies, and hospices. Focusing on the survey data, this lecture and demonstration session will show participants how to access and analyze the NSLTCP restricted data files through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC) program for both provider files (i.e., residential care communities and adult day services centers). The files include data on provider characteristics (e.g., ownership, years in operation, Medicaid participation, staffing, services offered, and electronic health records capability), as well as the distribution of user characteristics that include age, race and ethnicity, sex, selected medical conditions, and assistance with activities of daily living. This workshop assumes analysts will have some experience using SAS, Stata, or SPSS. At the end of the session, participants will be: (1) able to identify provider characteristics that can be studied with the 2014 NSLTCP; (2) better prepared to submit a proposal for and successfully complete an analytic project through the RDC; (3) able to access and analyze restricted data files in the RDCs for both provider types (i.e., residential care communities and adult day services centers); and (4) better prepared to run statistical analyses using restricted files to analyze subgroups and estimate variances for complex samples. [LI-3] [Lecture]

Room: Salon E

D1. Using the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)

This Learning Institute session will help participants identify the demographic and epidemiological questions that can be studied with NSFG, focusing on the recently released 2011–2013 NSFG. After this session, participants will know what topics can be studied using NSFG. They will also know how to: obtain the public use and contextual data files; find and choose the desired variables for their analyses; and run basic analyses on the male, female, and pregnancy files using SAS, SUDAAN, and Stata, including variance estimation for complex samples such as NSFG. [LI-12] [Hands-on]

Room: Glen Echo

D2. NCHS Data Online Query System (DOQS) for the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) and the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) Data

NCHS has developed new data tools that allow Web users to query selected NCHS data sets interactively. This session will introduce users to the NCHS DOQS, which currently houses selected NHAMCS data. By August 2015, it should also include selected data from NAMCS. Participants will develop expertise through hands-on training by NCHS staff. NCHS DOQS will provide access to a variety of public-use data items on visits to physicians’ offices, hospital outpatient departments, and hospital emergency departments. Data are from the 2005–2010 NHAMCS and NAMCS. [LI-5] [Hands-on]

Room: Brookside A-B

D3. Overview of the Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) Project

As the longest running, nationally representative survey of health in the world, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) offers the ability to produce population-based estimates on a number of health-related topics for specific subgroups and over time. The IHIS project at the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Population Center improves access to this valuable, high-quality data resource by reducing the time it takes for users to move from acquiring the data to analyzing it. Via an integrated online database with variables that are harmonized over time, users can easily study the health of Americans over a specific time period. Users can create free customized extracts of the NHIS data from the online database and download them in the statistical software package of their choice.

This session will consist of a 30–40 minute overview of the IHIS project, followed by a hands-on workshop. The overview will cover the integrated IHIS database, the IHIS approach to harmonizing data over time, the IHIS online extraction system, and analysis of IHIS data with the online tabulator. The hands-on workshop will take users through a series of guided exercises that will teach them about the metadata system, have them create customized extracts using the IHIS online system, show them how to download their selections into the software package of their choice (Stata, SAS, or SPSS), and have them produce analyses of the data using the appropriate weights. [LI-9] [Hands-on]

Room: Forest Glen

D4. How To Become a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) Genetic Data User

NHANES genetic data provide an opportunity to combine genetic information with health, nutritional, and environmental information from a nationally representative multiethnic population. This session will help users understand, search for, and access the NHANES genetic data repository including newly released genetic data. [LI-16] [Lecture]

Room: White Oak A

D5. How to Produce a Research Data Center (RDC) Proposal, and a National Death Index (NDI) Application

Presenters will go through the RDC sample proposal and provide helpful tips for completing the proposal. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about the RDC proposal process. Presenters will also go through the NDI sample application and provide helpful tips for completing the application. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions about the NDI application and review process. This session will be helpful for anyone interested in using restricted data and NDI mortality data. [LI-22] [Lecture]

Room: Salon D