NCHS Remote Data Access Systems: Present and Planned

Peter S. Meyer

National Center for Health Statistics

Division of Research and Methodology

2015 FCSM Statistical Disclosure Seminar

Session J-3 December 3, 2015

Remote Access Analysis Tools for Working with Government Data

National Center for Health Statistics
Data Access

Public Use Files

90+ Files Per Year

95

Restricted

Use

Files

5

No PII (off-site agreement)

Genetic, detailed geography, 

exact dates, linked files (RDC)

Detailed demographics, other (RDC remote)

Query tools (WONDER, etc.) 
Data Acumen

(My Mom)

General Public

Graduate Student

Academic Researcher

Nobel Laureate 

Policymaker or Journalist 
Data Systems  National Health Interview Survey-Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Survey National Health Interview Survey 

 National Health Care Interview Survey 

 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 

 National Survey of Family Growth

 National Death Index

 National Electronic Health Records Survey

 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey-Physician 

 Workflow Survey

 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey

 National Study of Long-Term Care Providers

 National Survey of Children in Non-Parental Care, 2013 (NSCNC)

 National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome, 2014 (NS-DATA)

 Supplement on Aging (SOA) 1984

 Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA) 1984-1990

 Second Supplement on Aging (SOA II) 1994-1996

 Second Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA II) 1994-1996

 National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-D) 1994-1995

 National Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) 1982-1984

 NHANES Epidemiologic Follow-up Study (NHEFS) 1982-1984; 1986, 1987, 1992

 NHANES National Youth Fitness Survey (NNYFS) 2012 

 National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS) 1973-74, 1977, 1985, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2004

 National Health Provider Inventory (NHPI) 1991 

 National Home and Hospice Care Survey (NHHCS) 1992-1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2007

 National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery (NSAS) 1994-1996; 2006

 National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS) 2004

 National Home Health Aide Survey (NHHAS) 2007

 National Survey of Residential Care Facilities (NSRCF) 2010

 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS) 1988; 1991

 National Mortality Follow-back Survey (NMFS) 1993

 National Employer Health Insurance Survey (NEHIS) 1994

 National Survey of Early Childhood Health (NSECH) 2000

 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) 2001, 2005-2006, 2009-2010

 National Asthma Survey (NAS) 2003

 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) 2003, 2007, 2011-2012

 Survey of Adult Transition and Health (SATH) 2007

 National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) 2007

 National Survey of Adoptive Parents of Children with Special Health Care Needs (NSAPSN) 2008

 Survey of Pathways to Diagnosis and Services (SPDS) 2011

 National Survey of Children in Non-Parental Care (NSCNC) 2013

 National Survey of the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD and Tourette Syndrome (NS-DATA) 2014
Data Types

 Public-Use Files

• Files are available for free without registration

 Restricted-Use Files

• No PII

• Research Data Center

• Indirect identifiers

• Requires proposal

• User fees
RDCs
Data Access Tools – HHS 

 VitalStats

 Health Indicator Warehouse

 Data 2010

 WISQARS

 CDC Wonder

 Data.CDC.gov

 CDC WONDER (NCHS birth and death data)

 CDC WISQARS (NCHS injury mortality)

 Health Indicators Warehouse (HHS)

 DATA2020 (Healthy People 2020)

 ASPE Health System Measurement Project (HHS)
Data Access Tools – NCHS 

 Data Online Query System (DOQS)

 Health Data Interactive

 VitalStats

 ANDRE

 FastStats

 DOQS

 OARS
FastStats
FastStats

 Static 

 Low literacy

 Public use

 Frequency, rates, and percentages

 Hard to maintain

• The site must be updated everytime there is a new release

 Not a research tool

 HTML, PDFs 
DOQS
DOQS

 Dynamic

 Medium literacy

 Public use

 Tables, charts, and graphs

 Easy to maintain

• Limited data

 Can be used for some research

 HTML, Java, XML, XMLT, SAS
ANDRE
ANDRE

 Dynamic

 High literacy

• SAS only

 Restricted use

 Anything that is allowed; models

 Hard to maintain

• New data for each project

• Software engineers

 Remote execution 

 C#, SQL, SAS
OARS

 Dynamic

 Middle literacy

 Restricted use

• Subsampling, Swapping, Perturbation

 Tables, frequencies, percentages, rates

• Modeling later

 Theoretically easy to maintain

 HTML, Westvar, SQL, C#, Java
Future Technology

 Dynamic

 Scaleable literacy

 All data

• Differential Privacy, Homomorphic Encryption

 All analyses

 Easy to maintain