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Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III)
Public-Use Data Files

Survey description
Data file description
Survey components
Technical characteristics
Geographic coverage
Data availability
Ordering information  Documentation contents
Related reports
Contacts
NHANES Web Site

Survey description
The Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), 1988-94, was conducted on a nationwide probability sample of approximately 33,994 persons 2 months and over. The survey was designed to obtain nationally representative information on the health and nutritional status of the population of the United States through interviews and direct physical examinations. Physical examinations and objective measures are employed because the information collected cannot be furnished or is not available in a standardized manner through interviews with the people themselves or through records maintained by the health professionals who provide their medical care.

Some of the 30 topics investigated in the NHANES III were: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity, passive smoking, lung disease, osteoporosis, HIV, hepatitis, helicobacter pylori, immunization status, diabetes, allergies, growth and development, blood lead, anemia, food sufficiency, dietary intake-including fats, antioxidants, and nutritional blood measures.

Data file description
The NHANES III consists of five separate files: Adult Household Data, Youth Household Data, Examination Data, Laboratory Data, and Dietary Recall Data. These data files are from the full 6 years of the NHANES III, 1988-94, and contains nearly all the data collected in the survey.

Data file technical characteristics
The following list describes the specific characteristics of each file. The block size and record length pertain to data stored on tape.

Geographic coverage
The NHANES III included the civilian noninstituionalized population of the conterminous United States.

Data availability
The NHANES III data files contain all data collected over the entire course of the survey. Data are available on tape and CD-ROM. Data on CD-ROM with the Statistical Export and Tabulation System (SETS) retrieval software contain all files, except for the Dietary recall data files. Additionally, a separate CD-ROM contains a complete set of the five NHANES III data files and documentation, as well as the necessary SAS code to create SAS data sets in ASCII format.

Other studies similar to the NHANES III are: HHANES, NHANES I, NHANES II, and NHES, Cycle I, Cycle 2, and Cycle 3.

Ordering information
Data tapes from the NHANES III can only be purchased through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). The CD-ROM can be purchased from NTIS and the Government Printing Office (GPO). The NTIS and GPO order numbers are as follows:

Documentation contents
Each NHANES III product contains the necessary documentation, including tape content and technical information, needed to access the data. All documentation is included electronically on the data tape and CD-ROMs.

The NHANES III Anthropometric Video contains the standardized anthropometric procedures used throughout NHANES III for the body measurement component of the survey.

Related reports
Background information on the procedures, survey components, questionnaires, examination and laboratory methods, and statistical analysis guidelines is available on the NHANES III Reference Manuals and Reports (CD-ROM). All data users are strongly encouraged to review these reference materials and reports before analyzing the data.

A detailed description of the design and operation of NHANES III is provided in Vital and Health Statistics, Series 1, No. 32, which contain a detailed analysis of NHANES III. Survey results are available in the Advance Data Nos. 255 and 258. Additional survey results will be published in Series 11 of the Vital and Health Statistics series.

This page last reviewed November 17, 2009