Task 4: Key Concepts About Finding the Analytic and Reporting Guidelines

One of the most important documents to read before any analysis of NHANES data is the Analytic and Reporting Guidelines. These guidelines have very useful and pertinent information about the survey and the data, including (but not limited to) summary recommendations about

• file documentation resources,
• complex survey design and weighting,
• variance estimation procedures, and
• sample size requirements.

This document presents analytic and reporting guidelines that should be used for NHANES data analyses and publications and provides a framework to users for producing estimates that conform to the analytic design of the survey. The Analytic and Reporting Guidelines represent the latest information from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) on recommended approaches for analysis of all NHANES data, but with a particular focus on data collected in the continuous NHANES (since 1999).