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BRFSS 2011 Survey Data and Documentation

The 2011 BRFSS data reflects a change in weighting methodology (raking) and the addition of cell phone only respondents. The aggregate BRFSS combined landline and cell phone dataset is built from the landline and cell phone data submitted for 2011 and includes data for 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. There are two territories (Guam, Virgin Islands) which are not included in the initial data release because current population estimates are not available at this time. These territories will be included after the 2010 Census estimates have been released. Please note the data set naming convention and weighting variables have changed. More information about the changes to the 2011 BRFSS is available here: http://www.cdc.gov/surveillancepractice/reports/brfss/brfss.html.

2011 Survey Data Information

2011 BRFSS Overview [PDF - 57 KB]
Provides information on the background, design, data collection and processing, statistical, and analytical issues for the combined landline and cell phone data set.

2011 BRFSS Codebook [PDF - 2.69 KB]
Codebook for the file showing variable name, location, and frequency of values for all reporting areas combined for the combined landline and cell phone data set.

Calculated Variables in Data Files [PDF - 379 KB]

2011 Summary Data Quality Report [PDF - 636 KB]

BRFSS Combined Landline and Cell Phone Weighted Response Rates by State, 2011

Preparing 2011 BRFSS Module Data for Analysis [PDF - 109 KB]

Comparability of Data [PDF - 56 KB]
Comparability of data across reporting areas for the combined landline and cell phone data set. The BRFSS 2011 data should be considered a baseline year for data analysis and is not directly comparable to previous years of BRFSS data because of the changes in weighting methodology and the addition of the cell phone sampling frame.

BRFSS Modules Used by State
BRFSS Modules Used by Category
Arranged by state or by category for the combined landline and cell phone data set.

Summary Matrix of Calculated Variables (CV) in the 2011 Data File

2011 Weighting Formula

Data Files

There are 506,467 records for 2011 for the combined landline and cell phone data set. More information on participation is available in the states conducting surveillance, by year table. The data files are provided in ASCII and SAS Transport formats. The January 2013 update corrects the calculated variable _DRNKMO4, adds the variable HAVHPAD, includes additional cell phone data and new weights for Arizona, and includes new weights for Guam.

2011 BRFSS Data (ASCII) [ZIP - 80 MB]
Data released August 2012
This file for the combined landline and cell phone data set is in ASCII format. It has a fixed record length of 1518 positions.

2011 BRFSS Data (SAS Transport Format) [ZIP - 128 MB]
Data released August 2012
This file for the combined landline and cell phone data set was exported from SAS V8.2 in the XPT transport format. This file contains 450 variables. This format can be imported into SPSS or STATA. Please note: some of the variable labels get truncated in the process of converting to the XPT format so they may be slightly different from what is on the SASOUT11.SAS program.

Variable Layout [PDF - 103 KB]
Format information on variable name by column position.

2011 BRFSS Landline Data
The BRFSS landline data sets contain the data from the states which conducted used optional modules in 2011 only on their landline survey.

2011 BRFSS Landline Multiple Data
The multiple version questionnaire data sets contain the data from the states which conducted more than one version of their questionnaire and used optional modules in 2011.

SAS Resources

The following files are included for use with SAS software developed by SAS Institute, Inc. The SAS files are programs that can be read using any text editor. Save SAS files as plain text files.

Format11.sas [SAS - 191 KB]

formats11 [SAS7BCAT - 554 KB]

SASOUT11_LLCP.SAS [SAS - 45 KB]
SAS for Windows program to convert the ASCII file into a SAS dataset.

TRANSPRT.SAS [SAS - 3 KB]
SAS for Windows program to convert the XPT (SAS Transport) file into a SAS dataset.

Formas11.sas [SAS - 14 KB]
SAS for Windows format assignment statements.

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