The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research (CHPR) and California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) staff will be featured at the 81st Annual American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Conference, which will be held May 13–15, 2026, in Los Angeles.

AAPOR, the leading association of public opinion and survey research professionals, brings together experts from around the country each year to explore the latest methods, trends, and innovations in the field, and discuss how data collection and measurement can advance inclusion and equity.

The conference theme this year is “An LA Love Story of Data, Innovation, and the Quest for Truth.” The programming will highlight connecting research to the public, rebuilding trust in data, and ensuring that insights from polling and survey research inform decision-making.

UCLA CHPR and CHIS staff will deliver nine presentations (PDF) at this year’s conference, covering topics such as: how CHIS is navigating changes in race and ethnicity data collection, the use of QR codes to increase survey response rates, and strategies to ensure representation of diverse communities throughout the survey life cycle.

This year marks the first time in the conference’s 81-year history that it will be held in the city of Los Angeles. The last time AAPOR met in Los Angeles County was in 1971, in Pasadena.

With AAPOR 2026 being held in Los Angeles, conference attendees are welcome to visit CHPR and CHIS at booth #115 in the exhibit hall to meet staff, see demonstrations of CHIS’ online health query tools — including AskCHIS™ and AskCHIS™ Neighborhood Edition — and pick up swag.

Presentations include:

An Experimental Study of Optimized Grid and Paging Designs for the K6 Scale in PC and Mobile Web Surveys: Evidence from the California Health Interview Survey (Poster)
Wednesday, May 13 // 3:15 p.m.–4:15 p.m. // Room: Pasadena – Exhibit Hall
Xinyu Zhang, Jiangzhou Fu, Wanli Wang (presenter), Todd Hughes, Royce Park, and Ninez A. Ponce

Can QR Codes Improve Response from an Address-Based Sample Survey? An Experiment in the California Health Interview Survey 
Thursday, May 14 // 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. // Room: San Gabriel B/C – Lobby Floor
Jiangzhou Fu, Xinyu Zhang (presenter), Todd Hughes, Royce Park, Ninez A. Ponce, and Susan Sherr (SSRS)

Evaluating the Effect of Sampling Two Adolescents within the Same Household in the California Health Interview Survey 
Thursday, May 14 // 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. // Room: Beaudry B – Lobby Floor
Royce Park (presenter), Xinyu Zhang, Jiangzhou Fu, Todd Hughes, Ninez A. Ponce, and Kathy Langdale (SSRS)

Session: Innovations in Measuring Demographic Characteristics
Thursday, May 14 // 9:30 a.m.–11:00 a.m. // Room: San Bernardino – Lobby Floor

This session features three CHIS presentations:

Coding Strategies and Preliminary Impacts of Revised SPD 15 Standards for Race and Ethnicity Questions in the California Health Interview Survey 
Andrew Juhnke (presenter), Tara Becker, Parneet Ghuman, Veronica Villacorta, Todd Hughes, and Ninez A. Ponce

Who Prefers Not to Answer Questions about Gender: An Analysis of the California Health Interview Survey 
Tara Becker (presenter), Alex Bates, Todd Hughes, and Ninez A. Ponce

Navigating Changes in Race and Ethnicity Data Collection During a Period of Limited Federal Guidance 
Tara Becker (presenter), Andrew Juhnke, Todd Hughes, and Ninez A. Ponce

Representing Diverse Communities throughout the Survey Life Cycle: Understanding California through the California Health Interview Survey 
Friday, May 15 // 8:30 a.m.–10:00 a.m. // Room: Hollywood Ballroom – Third Floor.
Todd Hughes (presenter) and Ninez A. Ponce

Mode Effects in Reporting Adverse Childhood Experiences: Comparing Web and Telephone Modes from the California Health Interview Survey 
Friday, May 15 // 4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. // Room: Beaudry A – Lobby Floor
Priyanka Shrivastava (presenter), Joncarlo Montenegro, Xinyu Zhang, Royce Park, Todd Hughes, and Ninez A. Ponce

AAPOR’s AAPI Research and Affinity Group presents The Data Gap on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: Demographics, Attitudes Toward, and Surveys of NHPIs
Wednesday, May 13 // 9:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m. // Room: Santa Monica
The UCLA Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Policy Lab 
Ninez A. Ponce (presenter), Richard Calvin Chang, and Brittany Morey

In 2024, AAPOR honored the UCLA CHPR and CHIS with its Inclusive Voices Award in recognition of more than two decades of work advancing data equity. The award recognizes the important data sets, research, and survey methods that have improved the ability to study complex social phenomena related to understudied populations.