Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) for Dementia Researchers, 2015-2019

This code and corresponding data files are intended for use in cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) research. The files include five years of cleaned datasets derived from the 2015-2019 years of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). BRFSS is a system of phone surveys that collect state data on health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and the use of preventive services in the U.S. adult population. <br><br>BRFSS is conducted in three waves, or “versions,” each year. Core questionnaires from BRFSS must be asked of all respondents in each wave and are asked in all 50 U.S. states, D.C., and some U.S. territories for 2015-2019. Individual states may opt to include additional modules, such as the Cognitive Decline Module, that may be asked in some or all the waves. This project uses the “full year” files, meaning that optional modules are only included for a state if they asked it in all three waves. <br><br>The provided datasets include cleaned sociodemographic information on respondents’ state, age, sex, race, education, and marital status from the full year data files (e.g., “2016 BRFSS Data”). The datasets also include the Caregiver Module and the Cognitive Decline Module for states which included either in all three waves of data collection. All states are included regardless of Caregiver or Cognitive Decline Module use. The files were constructed to allow for users to append multiple years of data for longitudinal analysis. Brief and detailed summaries of the variables available in these datasets along with more detailed descriptions of performed data cleaning can be found in the provided data dictionaries. Users may also refer to the provided “Overview of variables across years” for a quick look at variation in questions across years. SAS, Stata, and CSV data file formats are provided as are the full coding scripts used in Stata.