Examining Disparities in Asian Health: The National Health Interview Survey Examining Disparities in Asian Health: The National Health Interview Survey Experience

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is the principal source of health information for the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the U.S., fielded continuously since 1957. In 2006, the NHIS began to oversample the Asian population in the U.S. (in addition to continuing the oversampling of the Black and Hispanic populations), with the goal of developing more reliable estimates for the Asian population as a whole, and for disaggregated groups within the Asian population. After providing basic information about the NHIS, including survey content and questionnaire design, we describe aspects of the data collection process and field procedures of particular interest when surveying minority populations, such as language of interview and use of interpreters. Finally, we provide an example of how national survey data can be used to provide estimates regarding public health issues of particular interest to the Asian community and the disaggregated groups within the Asian population. We describe the results of multivariate analyses of the 2006-2011 NHIS data on adults' self-reported Hepatitis B vaccinations in six Asian population groups: Asian Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipino.