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 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic youth alcohol use questionnaire (variable name prefix P_ALQY_R) file provides data on lifetime and recent use (past 30 days). Questions are not specific to type of alcohol used.
All participants ages 12 years and older in the NHANES 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic sample were eligible; however, only data from participants who were ages 12 to 17 were included in this file with limited access through the NCHS Research Data Center (RDC). Data from adults 18 years and older were publicly released in a separate file, P_ALQ.
Questions were self-administered using the Audio Computer-Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) system at the Mobile Examination Center (MEC). The ACASI enables respondents to hear questions through headphones as well as read questions on the computer screen. Respondents move at their own speed and touch the screen to indicate their response.
The NHANES 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 alcohol use questionnaires are available on the NHANES website.
The ACASI system is programmed with built-in consistency checks to reduce data entry errors. All data was reviewed by the NHANES staff for accuracy and completeness.
For details on the QA/QC process for this component, please refer to the 2017-2018 MEC Interviewer Procedures and 2019-2020 MEC Interviewer Procedures manuals on the NHANES website.
The data were edited for completeness, consistency, and illogical values. Because the data are based on self-reports, not all inconsistencies could be resolved. It is recommended that analysts review the data carefully prior to analysis.
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. A special weighting process was applied to the 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.
All the NHANES 2017-March 2020 pre-pandemic ALQ data were collected in the MEC; therefore, exam sample weights should be used for the analyses. 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.
| Code or Value | Value Description | Count | Cumulative | Skip to Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I have never had a drink of alcohol, other than a few sips | 1055 | 1055 | End of Section |
| 2 | 8 years old or younger | 16 | 1071 | |
| 3 | 9 or 10 years old | 21 | 1092 | |
| 4 | 11 or 12 years old | 36 | 1128 | |
| 5 | 13 or 14 years old | 77 | 1205 | |
| 6 | 15 or 16 years old | 126 | 1331 | |
| 7 | 17 years old or older | 29 | 1360 | |
| 77 | Refused | 6 | 1366 | |
| 99 | Don't know | 3 | 1369 | |
| . | Missing | 75 | 1444 |
| Code or Value | Value Description | Count | Cumulative | Skip to Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 or 2 days | 160 | 160 | |
| 3 | 3 to 9 days | 92 | 252 | |
| 4 | 10 to 19 days | 27 | 279 | |
| 5 | 20 to 39 days | 13 | 292 | |
| 6 | 40 to 99 days | 8 | 300 | |
| 7 | 100 or more days | 7 | 307 | |
| 77 | Refused | 5 | 312 | |
| 99 | Don't know | 2 | 314 | |
| . | Missing | 1130 | 1444 |
| Code or Value | Value Description | Count | Cumulative | Skip to Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 days | 210 | 210 | End of Section |
| 2 | 1 or 2 days | 83 | 293 | |
| 3 | 3 to 5 days | 15 | 308 | |
| 4 | 6 to 9 days | 2 | 310 | |
| 5 | 10 to 19 days | 2 | 312 | |
| 6 | 20 to 29 days | 0 | 312 | |
| 7 | All 30 days | 1 | 313 | |
| 77 | Refused | 1 | 314 | |
| 99 | Don't know | 0 | 314 | |
| . | Missing | 1130 | 1444 |
| Code or Value | Value Description | Count | Cumulative | Skip to Item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 days | 69 | 69 | |
| 2 | 1 day | 20 | 89 | |
| 3 | 2 days | 9 | 98 | |
| 4 | 3 to 5 days | 5 | 103 | |
| 5 | 6 to 9 days | 1 | 104 | |
| 6 | 10 to 19 days | 0 | 104 | |
| 7 | 20 or more days | 0 | 104 | |
| 77 | Refused | 0 | 104 | |
| 99 | Don't know | 0 | 104 | |
| . | Missing | 1340 | 1444 |