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The survey generates critical health data that inform national policies and practices
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — RTI International, a nonprofit research institute, has been awarded a contract to oversee sample design and data collection for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a major program of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
NHANES is designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the U.S. through a combination of interviews and physical examinations. Survey data is used to understand the prevalence of major diseases and associated risk factors to inform health promotion and disease prevention strategies. The data also informs pediatric growth charts and national obesity statistics, which help develop robust public health policies and practices.
“RTI is honored to support CDC in continuing NHANES, the gold standard for public health, nutrition and well-being measures for the nation,” said Tim J. Gabel, president and CEO of RTI. “Our researchers are ready to lend their expertise to this critical work, adding to the institute’s long track record of supporting federal survey and data collection projects.”
By implementing innovative sample design and data collection processes, RTI researchers will help strengthen CDC’s capability to monitor population health and nutrition trends through increasing response rates, reducing respondent burden and improving timeliness of data collection and cost controls.
“Our entire team is enthused to be collaborating with CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics to implement innovative solutions to ensure the integrity and quality of the data and achieve the program’s scientific, operational and analytic goals,” added Steven B. Cohen, Ph.D., NHANES program director and principal scientist at RTI.
NHANES joins a portfolio of national, large-scale surveys led by RTI, including the National Survey of Family Growth, National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and more.
Learn more about RTI’s national survey and data collection work
