States' Use of Local Population Health Data: Comparing the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Independent State Health Surveys (Journal of Public Health Management and Practice)

This journal article references the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and provides a comparative overview of all of the nation's state health surveys, in an effort to identify key features of the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) that overlap, allowing future surveyors to develop more efficient and effective methods for gathering comprehensive health data. According to the authors, CHIS draws an extraordinarily large and diverse sample of California's population that provides for precise estimates of local racial/ethnic populations – a feature that is significantly lacking in the BRFSS. Overall, they urge for greater coordination between surveys at the national, state and local levels.

• E. Richard Brown. PhD
• Jennifer R. Kincheloe
• Nancy Breen
• et al