NHANES, an Unsung Public Health Hero in Jeopardy

When we talked about the most recent round of layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week, there was one group you may not have been familiar with: the team behind the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

NHANES is exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes public health work that is not flashy but is vital to the health of our country.

What is NHANES?

NHANES is a survey that collects data about Americans’ health and habits. Every year, the CDC selects about 5,000 people across the country to participate. Those people complete interviews, health and dental exams, and laboratory tests.

NHANES collects data about:

• Eating, drinking, physical activity, and smoking habits
• Reproductive health and sexual behaviors
• Environmental exposures
• Diseases like diabetes, asthma, anemia, and osteoporosis

This gives us a comprehensive view of the current state of health in the U.S. NHANES is our only national source of health information that combines data from interviews, health exams, and laboratory testing.

Why Does NHANES Matter?

Researchers, federal agencies, and medical organizations all rely on NHANES data. They use it to conduct research about health trends in the country, create national health policy, and develop clinical guidelines. Students use publicly available NHANES data to learn how to conduct public health research.

NHANES data helps us identify the health needs of Americans and take steps to protect their health.

“Without NHANES, we have no accurate information on the nation’s current health—information that is necessary for timely diagnosis, prevention, and treatment,” says Solveig Argeseanu Cunningham, PhD, a professor of global health and chronic disease researcher at Rollins.

Over the past 60 years, NHANES data has allowed us to:

• Identify when Americans had too much lead in their blood, leading to federal action to remove lead from paint
• Develop childhood growth charts
• Understand how many adults are living with undiagnosed conditions, like diabetes, and take steps to improve detection

What Now?

As I mentioned at the top, the staff responsible for planning NHANES were among those laid off from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics on October 10. As of now, it does not appear that their terminations have been rescinded.

Researchers and professional organizations are calling for the team to be reinstated because of the critical public health value of NHANES.

If staff are not brought back, and we no longer conduct NHANES, we would be flying blind in many ways: Our most important tool to track nutrition, environmental exposures, obesity, oral health, and other priority health concerns, would be gone.