Procedures to Reduce the Risk of Disclosure in Health Surveys

• Activity Number: 158
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 2, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Meena Khare*+ and Joe Fred Gonzalez, Jr. and Peter Meyer
• Companies: National Center for Health Statistics and National Center for Health Statistics and National Center for Health Statistics
• Keywords: Research Data Center (RDC) ; microdata ; confidentiality

Abstract

The NCHS conducts several population-based health surveys. The success of the surveys depends on the participation of the respondents who provide data under the assurance that their information will be kept confidential. Survey data files contain micro-data records for each respondent and risk of disclosure depends on the sensitivity of each item. Most public-use files (PUF) include demographic, socioeconomic and health related data. Personal identifiers are excluded from all internal and external files and are used only for data collection or data linkage purposes under strict confidentiality agreements. Geographic identifiers increase the risk of disclosure, especially for respondents with rare characteristics from small areas. The NCHS has established RDCs to analyze internal data under a secured environment. This paper summarizes the procedures used to protect respondents' data.