Data Sources

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights is the leading national lobbying organization (501 (c) 4), dedicated to nonsmokers' rights, taking on the tobacco industry at all levels of government, protecting nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke, and preventing tobacco addiction among youth. ANR pursues an action-oriented program of policy and legislation.

Measures: Smokefree workplace rules and laws.

Berkeley Mortality Database

This database contains life tables for national populations and, whenever available, the raw data used in constructing these tables. The raw data generally consist of birth and death counts from vital statistics, plus population counts from periodic censuses.

Measures: Financial burden of cancer care.

Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals

A part of the National Nutrition Monitoring System, which was the first nationwide dietary intake survey designed to be conducted annually.

Measures: Fruit and vegetable consumption, Red meat consumption, Fat consumption.

Federal Trade Commission and Staff Reports

The Federal Trade Commission provides annual reports on sales, advertising, and promotion for both cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

Measures: Tobacco company marketing expenditures.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

Often called “the voice of CDC,” the MMWR series is the agency’s primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations.

Measures: Medicaid coverage of tobacco dependence.

National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Life-Tables

The life tables in this report are current life tables for the U.S. based on age-specific death rates.

Measures: Years of life lost.

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. The survey is unique in that it combines interviews and physical examinations.

Measures: Fruit and vegetable consumption, Red meat consumption, Fat consumption, Weight, Secondhand smoke exposure, Arsenic, Benzene, Cadmium, Nitrate.

National Health Interview Survey Cancer Control Topical Module

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual nationwide survey of 36,000 households conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics and administered by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2019 the NHIS questionnaire was redesigned to increase relevance, enhance data quality, and minimize respondent burden. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges conducting in-person interviews for the 2020 NHIS, requiring changes to field procedures to conduct most surveys by telephone, which impacted survey response rates. For details, please refer to "Potential Impact of NHIS Redesign and COVID-19 on the Cancer Trends Progress Report".

Measures: Adult tobacco use, Quitting smoking, Physical activity, Sleep, Sun protection, Indoor tanning, Outdoor tanning, Sunburn, Genetic testing, Breast cancer screening, Cervical cancer screening, Colorectal cancer screening, Lung cancer screening, Prostate cancer screening, Cancer survivors and smoking, Cancer survivors and physical activity, Cancer survivors and obesity.

National Immunization Surveys

The National Immunization Surveys (NIS) are a group of phone surveys used to monitor vaccination coverage among children 19–35 months and teens 13–17 years, and flu vaccinations for children 6 months–17 years. The surveys are sponsored and conducted by the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and authorized by the Public Health Service Act [Sections 306].

Measures: HPV Immunization.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Surveillance Reports

The Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research within the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism prepares annual reports highlighting per capita alcohol consumption in the U.S.

Measures: Alcohol consumption.

National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

The National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals (National Exposure Report) is a series of ongoing assessments of the U.S. population's exposure to environmental chemicals.

Measures: Arsenic, Benzene, Cadmium, Nitrate.

National Survey on Drug Use and Health

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), formerly called the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), is an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The survey is the primary source of information on the use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States aged 12 years old or older.

Measures: Age at smoking initiation.

National Youth Tobacco Survey

The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) was designed to provide national data on long-term, intermediate, and short-term indicators key to the design, implementation, and evaluation of comprehensive tobacco prevention and control programs. The NYTS also serves as a baseline for comparing progress toward meeting selected Healthy People 2020 goals for reducing tobacco use among youth.

Measures: Youth tobacco use.

National Vital Statistics System

These data are provided through contracts between NCHS and vital registration systems operated in the various jurisdictions legally responsible for the registration of vital events – births, deaths, marriages, divorces, and fetal deaths.

Measures: Financial burden of cancer care, Mortality.

Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)

The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program collects information on incidence, prevalence and survival from specific geographic areas representing 34.6 percent of the US population and compiles reports on all of these plus cancer mortality for the entire country.

Measures: Incidence, Stage at diagnosis, Breast cancer treatment, Kidney cancer treatment, Survival.

SEER-Medicare Linked Database

The SEER-Medicare data reflect the linkage of two large population-based sources of data that provide detailed information about Medicare beneficiaries with cancer. The data come from the SEER Program of cancer registries that collect clinical, demographic, and cause of death information for persons with cancer and the Medicare claims for covered health care services from the time of a person's Medicare eligibility until death.

Measures: Financial burden of cancer care.

SEER Patterns of Care

The SEER Patterns of Care (POC) studies provide important information on cancer treatments as documented in hospital records.

Measures: Bladder cancer treatment, Breast cancer treatment, Colorectal cancer treatment, Lung cancer treatment, Ovarian cancer treatment, Prostate cancer treatment.

State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System

The State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation (STATE) System is an electronic data warehouse containing up-to-date and historical state-level data on tobacco use prevention and control. The STATE System is designed to integrate many data sources to provide comprehensive summary data and facilitate research and consistent interpretation of the data. The STATE System was developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Measures: Medicaid coverage of tobacco dependence.

Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey

The Tobacco Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS) is an NCI-sponsored survey of tobacco use that has been administered as part of the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. The TUS-CPS is a key source of national- and state- level data on smoking and other tobacco use in the U.S. household population. These data can be used by researchers to monitor progress in the control of tobacco use, conduct tobacco-related research, and evaluate tobacco control programs.

Measures: Clinician's advice to quit smoking, Smokefree home rules, Smokefree workplace rules and laws.

U.S. Census Bureau Population Projections

The population projections associated with this release were produced by the Population Division as an interim product to meet the immediate needs of our user community for national projections that incorporate the results of Census 2000.

Measures: Financial burden of cancer care.

Radon Vent Fan Manufacturers’ Sales Data

Measures: Radon.

U.S. EPA. An Inventory of Sources and Environmental Releases of Dioxin-Like Compounds in the U.S.

In November 2006, EPA released the report: An inventory of sources and environmental releases of dioxin-like compounds in the United States for the years 1987, 1995 and 2000. The report presented an evaluation of sources and emissions of dioxins (CDDs), dibenzofurans (CDFs) and coplanar PCBs to the air, land and water of the U.S.

Measures: Information to come.

Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) monitors priority health-risk behaviors and the prevalence of obesity and asthma among youth and young adults.

Measures: Youth tobacco use, Indoor Tanning, Sunburn.