NCHS Rapid Surveys System

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The NCHS Rapid Surveys System is a platform for CDC to provide reliable, actionable data of known quality to public health experts, government officials, and community leaders. The Rapid Surveys System includes probability-sampled commercial online surveys. Data are collected quarterly from a minimum of 4,000 adult participants from two commercial panels: AmeriSpeak (conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago) and KnowledgePanel (conducted by Ipsos). Results from commercial online surveys are available faster than from traditional population health surveys, thus enabling timelier access to relevant health-related data.

Topics that have been included Rapid Surveys include:

  • Air cleaners and purifiers
  • Breast cancer screening
  • Cancer risk
  • Genetic tests
  • Gynecological medical procedures
  • Intimate partner violence
  • Long COVID
  • Race and ethnicity measurement methods
  • Sunscreen

Rapid Surveys questionnaires are composed of questions sponsored by CDC programs and other partners to address time-sensitive data needs, public health attitudes or behaviors, and developmental work to improve concept measurement and inform future question design. It also includes standard variables used for sample weighting and calibration, as well as selected portions of existing content from NCHS surveys (such as the National Health Interview Survey) to compare panel estimates to these benchmarks, assess the fitness-for-use of the panel survey data, and for other methodological purposes. Each round of Rapid Surveys has at least 4,000 adult participants.

Data and Documentation:

Each file includes questionnaire data, limited paradata, some demographic and characteristic data, and sample weights. The datafiles include records on both survey responders, partial responders, and sampled non-responders.

Persons with disabilities experiencing problems accessing PDF file should contact nchsed@cdc.gov, or call 301-458-4688.