How to Download Data and Identify Supporting Documentation

Download SAS Transport Files

An NHANES analysis focusing solely on physical activity monitor measurements will include SAS transport files from 2 data categories:

• Demographic Data
• Examination Data
• PAXRAW – Physical Activity Monitor Examination File

Demographic data are linked to the physical activity monitor data by a common identifier, SEQN – the study participant’s identification number.

To build the “PAXMSTR” dataset for our sample SAS program, you will need to download demographic and physical activity monitor files from the 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 cycles. Remember that when creating a dataset for your own analysis, you need download only the data files relevant to that analysis.

From the NHANES homepage to the right: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm

• Click Questionnaires, Data Sets, and Related Documentation. From this page, click NHANES 2003-2004.
• Scroll down the page and click the Demographics link in the “Data, Documentation, Codebooks, SAS Code” section.  Locate “Demographics Data, Docs, Questionnaire”.  Right-click the Data link and select “Save Target As” to download and save the SAS transport file titled DEMO_C.
• Save the DEMO_C transport file to the C:\NHANES\DOWNLOAD directory created in Task 2, Step 1.

Note that file names for NHANES data include a single letter suffix, used to indicate the 2-year cycle in which the data were collected.