NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH SUPPLEMENT

There are many ways work can affect people’s health and some jobs carry more risk than others. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)is one data source that NIOSH and others use to study worker health. The NHIS consists of a core set of questions that remain relatively unchanged from year to year and supplemental questions that vary from year to year. The core questions include basic employment information such as industry and occupation (I&O), so that NHIS data from every year can be used to study general trends in worker health. In 2010*, NIOSH sponsored a series of more in-depth work-related questions in the NHIS. Using these questions, we gathered information to estimate the prevalence of workplace exposures and common work-related health conditions within the United States.

Within this site, you can learn more about the NHIS and the NIOSH Occupational Health Supplement (OHS) questions, what we learned about worker health issues in different industries, and more information about related resources. You may also view charts that show (1) how select issues affecting worker health vary among broad industry groups, and (2) how specific industries or occupations (job types) within each broad industry group compare to each other.