This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognizing you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
How can we improve the quality of behavioral risk factor data?
Providing technical assistance and cognitive testing of questions for BRFSS
Challenge
The BRFSS is a state-based survey system that serves as the nation’s primary data source for designing health care programs, policies, and interventions at local and state levels.
The data are used to address the most important public health issues across the country and territories. So, the BRFSS content must be current, reliable, valid, and easy for respondents to understand and answer.
In its role of overseeing the collaborative BRFSS effort, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continuously designs and conducts pilot studies to evaluate the impact that changing survey methods would have on response rates, data quality, survey estimates, and cost.
Solution
Westat supports the annual BRFSS question development cycle by conducting expert reviews and cognitive testing of new and revised question modules.
Westat conducted cognitive interviews with cancer survivors about questions that measure cancer screening and outcomes. Westat also conducted interviews with the general population about alcohol consumption, tobacco products, and family planning.
In addition, Westat conducted pilot tests with subsets of the 50 states to study the feasibility of changing survey methods and to assess the impact of alternative data collection modes and sampling approaches on data quality and population estimates.
Results
The CDC will use results from cognitive testing to inform content decisions and results from the pilot tests to make decisions about methodological changes to the survey system.
Such changes will help the BRFSS to keep pace with changes in communication and the role of technology in data collection.
Focus Areas
Behavioral Health Health Services Research and Health Policy Public Health Social ServicesCapabilities
Data Collection Data Collection Modes Statistical Methods Survey DesignSenior Expert Contact
Gina Shkodriani
Principal Research Associate
-
Perspective
Collaborating to Enhance Student Success NationwideJanuary 2025
Sharing best practices, creating connections, and collaboratively tackling challenges to improve student success was the purpose of the recent Promise Neighborhoods and Full-Service Community Schools…
-
Expert Interview
Leveraging Paradata and AI to Improve Survey Participation RatesJanuary 2025
The steady decline in survey response rates has been a major concern for many researchers for some time. Low response rates not only erode the…
-
Perspective
Westat Work Shines at 2024 APHSA EMWB ConferenceSeptember 2024
Westat human services experts recently presented at the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)’s Economic Mobility and Well-Being (EMWB) Conference in Portland, Oregon. At the…