Plan and Operation of a Health Examination Survey of U.S. Youths 12-17 Years of Age

摘要

The Health Examination Survey is one of the major programs of the National Center for Health Statistics. It is a part of the National Health Survey, authorized in 1956 by the 84th Congress as a continuing Public Health Service activity. The Health Examination Survey collects data by drawing samples of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the United States and, by means of medical and dental examinations and various tests and measurements, undertakes to characterize the population under study. This is the most accurate way to obtain definite diagnostic data on the prevalence of certain medically defined illnesses. It is the only way to obtain information on unrecognized and undiagnosed conditions--in some cases, even nonsymptomatic conditions. It is also the only way to obtain distributions of the population by a variety of physical, physiological and psychological measurements. In addition to the data collected by the examining, measuring, and testing procedures, a wide range of other data is collected concerning each of the sample persons examined. Therefore, it is not only possible to study the many potential relationships of the examination findings to one another, but also to investigate the relationships of the examination findings to demographic and socioeconomic factors.