National Health Interview Survey

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) monitors the health of the United States population through the collection and analysis of data on a broad range of health topics. The survey covers the civilian noninstitutionalized population residing in the United States at the time of the interview. Black, Hispanic, and Asian persons are oversampled. The questionnaire has Core questions and Supplements. Core questions remain largely unchanged from year to year and allow for trends analysis and for data from more than one year to be pooled to increase sample size for analytic purposes. The Core contains four major components: Household, Family, Sample Adult, and Sample Child. The Household component collects limited demographic information on all of the individuals living in a particular house. The Family component verifies and collects additional demographic information on each member from each family in the house and collects data on topics including health status and limitations, injuries, healthcare access and utilization, health insurance, and income and assets. The Supplements are used to respond to new public health data needs as they arise. The questionnaires are sometimes fielded only once or are repeated as needed. These questionnaires may be used to provide additional detail on a subject already covered in the Core or on a different topic not covered in other parts of the NHIS.