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