Establishing the New NCHS Rapid Surveys System -- Challenges and Lessons Learned
The COVID-19 pandemic
highlighted the need for timely critical health and health care data from
population-based surveys. Legacy surveys such as the National Health Interview
Survey (NHIS) could not meet this need due to both the disruption to data
collection from the pandemic and the longer processing times prior to data
release. To meet the continuing demand for relevant and timely data on emerging
health topics, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) now fields
“rapid surveys” several times each year, simultaneously using two commercial
probability-sampled online survey panels. Each survey includes a broad range of
questions based on current needs of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) programs, so no two Rapid Surveys are alike. Statistical weighting
methods leverage the strength of the NHIS to improve the reliability of
estimates. Rapid Surveys use different methodology, have fewer participants,
and have lower precision compared with other NCHS household surveys. However,
before each public data release, NCHS conducts an extensive review of the
quality of all data collected. This presentation will highlight goals, key
features, data quality, and implementation challenges of the NCHS Rapid Surveys
System.
Stephen Blumberg is Director of the
Division of Health Interview Statistics at the National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS), a position he has held since 2017. This Division
collects, processes, analyzes, and distributes household survey data from the
National Health Interview Survey, the National Survey of Family Growth, and the
new NCHS Rapid Surveys System. Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Blumberg
was senior scientist and lead statistician for the National Survey of Children
with Special Health Care Needs and the National Survey of Children’s Health.
Dr. Blumberg has served as a member of the Federal Committee on
Statistical Methodology, President of DC-AAPOR, Chair of the AAPOR Standards
Committee, and Chair of the NCHS Ethics Review Board. Dr. Blumberg has a
PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.