Key Concepts About Finding Datasets
Publicly-Released Datasets
Throughout the years, NHANES datasets and related information have been
released in a variety of formats and different media. However, since the late
1990s, all publicly available data and related documentation are released and
updated in a centralized location: the NHANES website.
Datasets contain data for persons who participated in the selected survey.
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) datasets are
labeled by cycle year. The website contains the public-use data files for each
of National Center for Health Statistic's national surveys starting with the
initial National Health Examination Survey (NHES) I dataset up to the most
current dataset. Codebooks and documentation are part of each data file. (For
more experience on locating data files and related documentation, please see the
Locate Variables module and the Download Data Files module.)
There are several pages of downloads to review.
- The Questionniares, Data Sets, and Related Documentation page lists all the survey
cycles from the most recent to most historic, and includes the NHANES
Analytic Guidelines, and the suggested citation for NHANES to use in
publications.
- The survey cycle page (titled by the survey cycle, e.g., NHANES
2001-2002) contains documentation about the survey, documentation on
how to use the data and links to each of the four component pages. It is
divided into four sections:
- Contents at a Glance, which has information about the survey in general
terms
- Contents in Detail, which has detailed descriptions about the different
items used in the survey including survey
questionnaires, manuals, brochures and consent forms
- Using the Data, which has Analytic and Reporting Guidelines and
documentation on how the data was released, and
- Data, Documentation, Codebooks, SAS Code, which has links to the five component pages:
- Demographics
- Dietary
- Examination
- Laboratory
- Questionnaire