National Health Interview Survey Linked to Air Quality Data

1985-2005 NHIS-EPAAnnualAir

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducts the National Health Interview Survey to describe general and specific health of the United States. NCHS has linked annual air monitoring data, available from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internet site to NHIS data files, geo-coded to the respondent’s block group of residence. These SAS data files are available in the Research Data Center (RDC) but, because they contain geography-specific information, are not available for public-use.

Annual pollution averages at air monitoring locations were obtained from the EPA. See the EPA AirData Annual Summary Table Query to access the data. For each NHIS respondent, annual pollution exposures for several pollutants were calculated from monitors within 20, 15, 10, and 5 mile radii of the geo-coded block group and from monitors within the county of residence. Exposures for carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), particles (PM2.5 and PM10) and lead (Pb) were calculated. Because not all NHIS respondents live near monitors, most respondents are missing values for one or more pollutants. More respondents have values for exposures calculated using 20-mile radii than using shorter radii.

For more information, including the list of variables that can be merged to the NHIS: