New York City Community Health Survey, 2005

The New York City Community Health Survey (CHS) is a telephone survey conducted annually by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH). The CHS conducted in 2005 collected information from 9,816 New York adult residents aged 18 years and older from all 5 boroughs of New York City -- Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island. All data collected are self-report. Data are available at the level of 33 different neighborhoods, defined by ZIP code. The survey is conducted to inform health program decisions, to increase the understanding of the relationship between health behavior and health status, and to support health policy positions. Respondents were asked about their physical activity participation, body weight, general health, and whether they had ever had a flu shot. Multiple questions addressed respondents' smoking habits, including the age at which they began smoking, the number of cigarettes they smoked per day, where their last cigarette came from, whether they stopped smoking for a period of time, and their current smoking status. Additional information was collected on respondents' colonoscopy, mammogram and pap smear screenings, hypertension diagnosis, and whether respondents' had their cholesterol checked. Other topics covered included respondents' sexual history and contraception preference, whether they had ever been tested for HIV, respondents' alcohol consumption, and whether they had ever experienced domestic violence. Weights were constructed at the UHF-level to allow the sample to provide neighborhood-level estimations of both individual adults and of households in New York City. The data contain a weight variable (WT6) that should be used in analyzing the data. Demographic variables include gender, age, marital status, employment status, race, poverty level, income, and education level.