• Component Description
• Eligible Sample
• Interview Setting and Mode of Administration
• Quality Assurance & Quality Control
• Data Processing and Editing
• Analytic Notes
• Codebook
  • SEQN - Respondent sequence number
  • WHQ030M - How do you consider your weight
  • WHQ500 - Trying to do about weight
  • WHQ520 - How often tried to lose weight

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

2017-March 2020 Data Documentation, Codebook, and Frequencies

Weight History - Youth (P_WHQMEC)

Data File: P_WHQMEC.xpt

First Published: November 2021

Last Revised: NA

Component Description

The NHANES program suspended field operations in March 2020 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As a result, data collection for the NHANES 2019-2020 cycle was not completed and the collected data are not nationally representative. Therefore, data collected from 2019 to March 2020 were combined with data from the NHANES 2017-2018 cycle to form a nationally representative sample of NHANES 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic data. These data are available to the public. Please refer to the Analytic Notes section for more details on the use of the data.

The Weight History section of the Mobile Examination Center (MEC) Interview (variable name prefix WHQMEC) provides personal interview data on topics related to body weight in youth 8-15 years of age. These topics include self-perception of weight and dieting attempts.

Eligible Sample

Examined participants aged 8-15 years in the NHANES 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic sample were eligible. The target sample for the questions in this section is youth aged 8-15 years.

Interview Setting and Mode of Administration

The questions were asked in the MEC, by trained interviewers, using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) system as part of the MEC interview. Proxy respondents were not permitted for this section.

For details on the administration of WHQMEC, refer to the NHANES 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 MEC Interviewers Procedures Manual and the 2017-2018 Weight History questionnaire on the NHANES website.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

The CAPI system is programmed with built-in consistency checks to reduce data entry errors. CAPI also uses online help screens to assist interviewers in defining key terms used in the questionnaire.

For details on the quality assurance/quality control process for this component, please refer to the NHANES 2017-18 and 2019-2020 MEC Interviewer Procedures Manuals.

Data Processing and Editing

Frequency counts were verified during the preparation of the file.

Responses to WHQ030m, which asks if adolescents consider themselves now to be fat or overweight, too thin, or about the right weight, can be compared with proxy responses to WHQ030e in the Early Childhood questionnaire (ECQ) section.

Exam sample weights should be used for analyses.

Analytic Notes

The COVID-19 pandemic required suspension of NHANES 2019-2020 field operations in March 2020 after data were collected in 18 of the 30 survey locations in the 2019-2020 sample. Data collection was cancelled for the remaining 12 locations. Because the collected data from 18 locations were not nationally representative, these data were combined with data from the previous cycle (2017-2018) to create a 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic data file. The resulting sample weights in the demographic file should be used to calculate estimates from the combined cycles. These sample weights are not appropriate for independent analyses of the 2019-2020 data and will not yield nationally representative results for either the 2017-2018 data alone or the 2019-March 2020 data alone. Please refer to the NHANES website for additional information for the NHANES 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic data, and for the previous 2017-2018 public use data file with specific weights for that 2-year cycle.

Please refer to the NHANES Analytic Guidelines and the on-line NHANES Tutorial for further details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues.

Codebook and Frequencies