National Health Interview Survey

What to know

  • Learn what restricted data are available from the National Health Interview Survey.
  • Researchers interested in using these data must obtain approval through the NCHS Research Data Center.
The National Health Interview Survey logo shows the outline of a house with three people and a data trend line inside.

Overview

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) collects data on a broad range of health topics through personal household interviews. NHIS is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

Data

2019 and onward restricted use data codebooks

Codebooks for restricted-use variables are available for the sample adult, sample child, and paradata files for each NHIS data year beginning in 2019. These can be found in Data, Questionnaires, and Related Documentation on each year's data release page.

1997-2018 restricted and public use variable lists

1997–2018 restricted and public use variable lists, each sorted by question:

More detailed documentation, such as variable values and questionnaire information, for 1997 to 2018 are available by request. If you are interested in receiving the documentation, please contact RDCA@cdc.gov.

Detailed variable lists are not available for years prior to 1997.

Other NHIS restricted data

Restricted use data sorted by geography and preliminary quarterly data: