NHIS—Teen Restricted Use File

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)—Teen was a follow-back survey of Sample Children ages 12-17 years old (herein teen) for whom a parent completed the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and also provided permission for the teen to participate. NHIS—Teen is a self-administered survey that teens completed themselves either on the web or paper (mailed). Recruitment for NHIS—Teen occurred July 2021—December 2023 during the NHIS Sample Child interview. Teens with permission received an invitation to go online and complete a questionnaire about their own health. Mailed paper questionnaires were sent to nonrespondents. Questions were included to test concordance with parent-reported responses, address time-sensitive data needs, assess public health attitudes or behaviors, and contribute to developmental work to understand differences between parent and self-reported measures of health.

The majority of NHIS—Teen survey content focused on the health behaviors, social and emotional wellbeing, and healthcare experiences of teens. Detailed sociodemographic characteristics (e.g. health insurance coverage type, family income) as reported by the parent in the NHIS Sample Child interview can be linked to NHIS—Teen. NHIS—Teen was a pilot survey with data collection concluding in March 2024. There are currently no plans to field additional iterations.