Sampling Asians in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

• Activity Number: 93
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Monday, August 5, 2013 : 7:00 AM to 8:15 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Margaret Carroll*+
• Companies: NCHS/CDC
• Keywords: Over sampling, Non-response rates, Non-response bias

Abstract

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is, a series of cross-sectional, probability surveys conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics/CDC that collects health related data on a representative sample of the United States non-institutionalized population. Selected subgroups such as non-Hispanic blacks, low-income whites, and Hispanics have been selected at higher rates than other subgroups (i.e., oversampled to obtain more stable estimates). Beginning in 2011, Asians were oversampled in NHANES. Similar to other surveys in which Asians have been oversampled, response rates for this subgroup in NHANES 2011--2012 are low, below 70%, thus increasing the likelihood for non-response bias. In this roundtable, we will discuss possible guidance for NHANES data users in analyzing and interpreting data on Asians.