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Physical Examination and Health Status Surveys

Westat is in the forefront of medical data collection using collection methods such as mobile examination centers for physical examinations, integrated survey information systems, and psychological and nutritional evaluations.

  • Since 1982, Westat has conducted three National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) for NCHS:
    NHANES includes interviews with respondents in their homes followed by extensive physical examinations performed in mobile examination centers. A traveling team of physicians, dentists, technicians, nutritionists, and interviewers collect data from approximately 5,000 persons nationwide each year.

    Picture of NHANES mobile examination centers

    To date, Westat has examined more than 50,000 participants. Beginning in 1992, interviews have been conducted using CAPI. Since 1999, we have implemented an Integrated Survey Information System to support sampling, data collection, survey monitoring, quality control, and data management. Highlights of this system include fully automated data collection, including doorstep screening using pen-based computers, integration with biomedical examination equipment, and audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI). This system operates across a private, wide-area network providing delivery of interview, examination, and management information to NCHS in near real time as it is collected.
  • Westat has been awarded the contract to serve as the coordinating center for the National Children's Study (NCS) — the largest study ever undertaken within the United States to assess the effects of the environment on child and adult health. The full nationwide study would follow more than 100,000 children from prior to conception through adulthood, seeking information to prevent and treat such health problems as autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Westat will design the sample of households, which will lead to selecting women, finalizing protocols, managing data, compiling and analyzing statistics, and ensuring that the study proceeds according to design.

    Six Vanguard Centers have been selected to pilot and complete the first phases of the study. The centers, which include a variety of universities, hospitals, health departments, and other organizations, will work within their communities to recruit participants, collect and process data, and pilot new research methods for incorporation into the full study.

    NCS is led by a consortium of Federal agency partners: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  • Westat is one of three clinical sites participating in the NHLBI Growth and Health Study, a 10-year longitudinal investigation to follow a cohort of black and white girls and their parents. Participants undergo detailed physical, psychosocial, and nutritional evaluations to provide information about the determinants of obesity and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
  • For many years Westat conducted the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals a national survey that captured information about Americans' dietary intake and their food- and nutrition-related knowledge and attitudes. For USDA, Westat performed the following:
  • The National Surveys of Oral Health have been conducted for the National Institute of Dental Research to measure changes in oral health over time among children and adults. Traveling dental examination teams visited businesses, senior centers, and schools to obtain data on oral health measures, such as coronal caries, treatment needs, and loss of attachment.

 

For more information about the Health and Medical Studies Research Area, please send us a message.

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