What are the CHIS cancer control items?

NCI provides support for the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) to field cancer control questions covering cancer risk factors, cancer screening behaviors, and cancer diagnosis. The CHIS cancer control questions are comparable to the Cancer Control Supplement questions in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Data are reported for most counties and the largest cities in the state, and are therefore useful for estimating at the local level.

Because racial and ethnic subpopulations are so well represented in California, CHIS enables investigators to better estimate health-related behaviors, use of health services, and cancer risk factors in these groups. Groups of particular interest include African-Americans, Latinos and Hispanics, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

CHIS was last fielded in 2009. The survey’s questionnaire included questions (PDF) on diet, physical activity, and cancer screening (breast, cervical, colorectal, prostate). Unique to CHIS 2009 were questions on prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test decision-making.

The 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2009 CHIS data are available from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.