At a glance
- Learn what restricted data are available from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Rapid Survey System.
- Researchers interested in using these data must obtain approval through the NCHS Research Data Center.
Overview
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Rapid Surveys System is a platform for CDC to provide reliable, actionable data of known quality to public health experts, government officials, and community leaders.
The Rapid Surveys System includes probability-sampled commercial online surveys. Data are collected quarterly from a minimum of 4,000 adult participants from two commercial panels: AmeriSpeak (conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago) and KnowledgePanel (conducted by Ipsos). Results from commercial online surveys are available faster than from traditional population health surveys, thus enabling timelier access to relevant health-related data.
CDC programs and other partners sponsor Rapid Surveys questions. These questions address time-sensitive data needs, public health attitudes or behaviors, and developmental work to improve concept measurement and inform future question design.
Rapid Surveys also include standard variables used for sample weighting and calibration, as well as selected portions of existing content from NCHS surveys (such as the National Health Interview Survey). Researchers use this content to compare panel estimates to NCHS survey benchmarks, assess the fitness-for-use of the panel survey data, and for other methodological purposes.
Rapid Surveys topics
Data
NCHS provides Rapid Surveys System data and documentation for each survey round. These datafiles include —
- Questionnaire data
- Limited paradata
- Demographic and characteristic data
- Sample weights
The datafiles include records on survey responders, partial responders, and sampled non-responders.
If you are experiencing problems accessing the PDF files because of a disability, contact nchsed@cdc.gov or call 301-458-4688.