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BRFSS Data Release Notes


General Release Notes

2022 BRFSS

Race/Ethnicity Data

HHDW has been working on standardizing the category descriptions across data sets. As part of this standardization the display order for DOH Race/Ethnicity has been changed to be the same across all data sets. The new display order is:

New indicators added in 2022

Access to Health Care

Chronic Diseases and Conditions

Demographics

Health Behaviors

Screening and Preventive Services


2021 BRFSS

Race/Ethnicity Title Changes

With the 2021 data load we made a couple of changes to the race/ethnicity titles, to be consistent across data sets and years. Now, we are using "White" and "American Indian or Alaska Native" as category titles.

Indicator Category Changes

With the 2021 data load we made several changes to the categories and sub-categories. We alphabetized the categories and created a new category for Substance Use and new subcategories in Demographics, Health Behavior and Mental Health Status. Here is a listing of all of the current categories and subcategories:

Access to Health Care

Chronic Diseases and Conditions

Demographics

General Health Status and Disability

Health Behaviors

Mental Health Status

Screening and Preventive Services

Substance Use


New BRFSS indicators added in 2021

There are many new indicators available:

Access to Health Care

Chronic Diseases and Conditions

Health Behaviors

Screening and Preventive Services

Substance Use


2020 BRFSS

New BRFSS indicators added in 2020

There are many new indicators available:

Demographics

Health Behavior

Screening and Preventive Services

Chronic Diseases and Conditions

Mental Health Status

HHDW has a new module for Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE).

2019 BRFSS


The default report has been changed to the statewide estimate for the most recent three years of data. This change was implemented to better align with our other data sources. Users can still view all years of data and data by county by clicking on the Modify Query Definition, selecting all available years (Step 2: TIME PERIOD), setting the geography to county (Step 3: GEOGRAPHIC AREA), selecting geography as the display by (category) (Step 8), and clicking submit.

New BRFSS indicators added in 2019

There are many new indicators available:

Demographics

Health Behaviors

Access to Health Care

Screening and Preventive Services

Chronic Diseases and Conditions


New BRFSS dimensions added in 2019

A new geographic dimension was added in 2019 to allow users to view reports by Primary Care Service Area.

There are also several new dimensions available to allow users to view reports by other health behaviors or conditions:

Change in the raking methodology

The 2019 BRFSS raking method includes categories of age by gender, detailed race and ethnicity groups, education levels, marital status, regions within states, gender by race and ethnicity, telephone source, renter or owner status, and age groups by race and ethnicity.

2018 BRFSS


Changes in the race/ethnicity dimensions.

In 2018, the Hawaiʻi Department of Health (DOH) revised how it collects race/ethnicity information in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The new methodology better aligns with national data collection standards and complies with the race/ethnicity algorithm used by the Office of Health Status Monitoring in DOH.

There are now two versions of DOH race/ethnicity: (2011+, new) and (2011-2017).
For a limited time, both versions of DOH race/ethnicity will be available, to give users an opportunity to compare and assess the impact of this change on indicators that are of interest to them. Please plan on transitioning to the new (2011+, new) race/ethnicity dimension going forward, as this is the new standard for DOH.

Poverty Level (2014+) dimension.

This new socioeconomic indicator dimension is based on multiple questions including the number of people living in the household and the annual household income from all sources. These numbers are compared to the annual US Department of Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines to approximate the respondent's Federal Poverty Level percentage. This data is available from 2014 to the most recent year. Queries that request an indicator by this dimension will only include data from 2014 forward.

Sexual and Gender Minority (2014+) dimension.

This new demographic indicator dimension is based on sexual orientation and transgender identity. Adults who identify their sexual orientation as gay, lesbian, bisexual or something else, or who identify as transgender are coded as "yes" all others are coded as "no". This data is available from 2014 to the most recent year. Queries that request an indicator by this dimension will only include data from 2014 forward.

Transgender (2014+) dimension.

This new demographic indicator dimension is based on transgender identity. Adults who identify as transgender (male-to-female, female-to-male or gender non-conforming) are coded as "yes" all others are coded as "no". This data is available from 2014 to the most recent year. Queries that request an indicator by this dimension will only include data from 2014 forward.

2017 BRFSS


The underlying SAS code was modified to more accurately generate the asymmetric confidence intervals that occur when point prevalences approach 0 and 1. This code change will impact all BRFSS reports. As a result, there may be slight differences in confidence intervals and relative standard errors, and hence, reportability, from previous years. Please check your query results carefully and re-run reports as necessary. HI-IBIS runs on SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc: Cary, NC).

2014 BRFSS


Beginning in 2014, all adults contacted through their cellular telephones are eligible to participate in the survey, regardless of their landline phone use (complete overlap).

2011 BRFSS


The BRFSS raking method includes categories of age by gender, detailed race and ethnicity groups, education levels, marital status, regions within states, gender by race and ethnicity, telephone source, renter or owner status, and age groups by race and ethnicity.


All Years


Race/Ethnicity Data

Respondents are asked the following question to ascertain their race/ethnicity:
This question is used to create the Race/ Ethnicity classifications. In HHDW, the most granular level is the program race/ethnicity (PRG) which rolls up into the DOH standard race/ethnicity (DOH), which rolls up into Census race reporting categories (Census). The table below illustrates how the data is aggregated.

Race/Ethnicity Classifications
Source Race/EthnicityProgram Race/Ethnicity (PRG)DOH Race/Ethnicity (DOH)Census Race (Census)
American Indian or Alaska NativeAmerican Indian or Alaska NativeAmerican Indian or Alaska NativeAmerican Indian or Alaska Native
Asian IndianAsian IndianOther AsianAsian
BlackBlackBlackBlack or African American
ChineseChineseChineseAsian
FilipinoFilipinoFilipinoAsian
Guamanian or ChamorroGuamanian or ChamorroOther Pacific IslanderNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
HawaiianHawaiianNative HawaiianNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
JapaneseJapaneseJapaneseAsian
KoreanKoreanOther AsianAsian
SamoanSamoanOther Pacific IslanderNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
VietnameseVietnameseOther AsianAsian
Other AsianOther AsianOther AsianAsian
Other Pacific IslanderOther Pacific IslanderOther Pacific IslanderNative Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
WhiteWhiteWhiteWhite
OtherOtherOtherOther


Documentation

Documentation is available here to describe how we collect and map race/ethnicity, geography, and poverty level.

HHDW Race/Ethnicity Documentation

HHDW Geography Documentation

HHDW Poverty Level Documentation

HHDW Sexual and Gender Minority Documentation

Other Information

Note about indicator/dimension titles:

The BRFSS is constantly changing. HHDW staff carefully review the BRFSS survey instrument each year to assess how changes in the survey instrument impact indicators and dimensions within the HHDW system. When an indicator has multiple categorical responses (other than Yes/No) the indicator title will have "(cat)" at the end. For example, Alcohol - max number of drinks (cat) or Daily frequency of total fruit consumption (cat). When an indicator or dimension is not available across all years, this information will be added to the name. For example, there are two versions of Adults with at least one disability: (2016+) and (2013-2016). In 2016, a question about auditory disability was added to the BRFSS so a new indicator was created to capture any disability including hearing issues--Adults with at least one disability (2016+). Poverty level (2014+) is available from 2014 forward only based on when questions about household members for cell phone respondents were added to the survey. A query with data by Poverty level (2014+) dimension will only contain data from 2014+ regardless of the years of data for the base indicator. If you have questions, check the Question Wording in the Data Notes section of the report.