Summary: | The National Health Examination Surveys, Cycles I-III (NHES I-III), conducted during the period 1959-1970, were designed to secure
statistics on the health status of the population of the United
States. Medical examinations, tests, and measurements on a
scientifically selected random sample of the population comprise the
sources of data for this program. NHES I was limited to
civilian adults living outside of institutions. This cycle's purpose was
to determine the prevalence of certain chronic diseases, the status of
dental health, and the distributions of auditory and visual acuity and
certain anthropometric measurements. Medical staff and other survey
staff performed the standard examination, which lasted about two
hours, in mobile clinics especially designed for this purpose. NHES
II (1963-1965), contains demographic data on children 6 to 11 years of
age, as well as information on children's medical and developmental
history, schooling, psychological testing results, physical
examinations, hearing, vision, and dental examinations, body
measurements, and assessments of skeletal maturation. NHES III
(1966-1970), collected extensive data on youths, age 12 to 17. The
information covers personal and demographic characteristics, medical
and dental history, and health habits and behavior. Data were
collected from parents, schools, birth certificates, psychological
exams, physician's exams, and dental exams. Test results from vision,
ear, nose, throat, hearing, blood pressure, bone age, body
measurement, and certain x-ray and laboratory tests are included. This
series of studies was succeeded in 1971 by the NATIONAL HEALTH AND
NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEYS (NHANES) and its followup series.
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