NCHS releases public use data sets from the continuous NHANES in two-year groupings (cycles). This release does not contain all of the data collected on persons who participated in the survey during 2005-2006. As more data becomes available, there will be additional releases posted on the What's New page. These updates will be fully documented on this site. Data processing, methodologic and disclosure concerns are examples of the reasons why various data components from NHANES 2005-2006 are not on this first public use data release. When (and if) these concerns are resolved, the data will be made publicly available.
For a number of reasons, the release of data from the current NHANES will not be comparable to the approach used in previous NHANES studies. The data and documentation for the interview, laboratory and examination components of the survey will be released in numerous files to facilitate ease of use and access via the Internet. This will require the user to merge files to create analytic data sets. In addition, changes in the survey design and implementation necessitate analytic guidelines that differ from previous NHANES. Many of the past general analytic principles still apply, but with adjustments for the new survey design and taking into account more recent statistical practices and procedures. This data release will allow for analyses of data collected in 2005-2006 as well as the ability to combine these data with those collected in 1999-2004. The analytic guidelines will provide guidance on the use of appropriate sample weights and analytic strategies and will be revised on various occasions as new issues are raised and addressed by NCHS staff. Users are encouraged to check the What's New page and this site regularly for updates on available data, documentation and guidelines for use of the data.
NHANES data in this release are in SAS transport file format.
- Use the XPORT engine to access this data in any version of SAS.
- Copy the transport files to a permanent SAS library.
As an example, assume you have downloaded the Body Measures exam data to the folder "C:\NHANES". You can then use the following SAS code to copy the Body Measures Exam Data:
LIBNAME XP XPORT "C:\NHANES\bmx_d.xpt";
PROC COPY IN=XP OUT=SASUSER;
RUN;