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Terms of Use

It is of utmost importance to ensure the confidentiality of survey participants. Every effort has been made to exclude identifying information on individual respondents from the computer files. Some demographic information such as sex, race, etc., has been included for research purposes. NCI expects that users of the data set will adhere to the strictest standards of ethical conduct for the analysis and reporting of nationally collected survey data. It is mandatory that all research results be presented/published in a manner that protects the integrity of the data and ensures the confidentiality of participants.

In order for the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to provide a public-use or another version of data to you, it is necessary that you agree to the following provisions.

  1. You will not present/publish data in which an individual can be identified. Publication of small cell sizes should be avoided.
  2. You will not attempt to link nor permit others to link the data with individually identified records in another database.
  3. You will not attempt to learn the identity of any person whose data are contained in the supplied file(s).
  4. If the identity of any person is discovered inadvertently, then the following should be done;
    1. no use will be made of this knowledge,
    2. the HINTS Program staff will be notified of the incident,
    3. no one else will be informed of the discovered identity.
  5. You will not release nor permit others to release the data in full or in part to any person except with the written approval of the HINTS Program staff.
  6. If accessing the data from a centralized location on a time sharing computer system or LAN, you will not share your logon name and password with any other individuals. You will also not allow any other individuals to use your computer account after you have logged on with your logon name and password.
  7. For all software provided by the HINTS Program, you will not copy, distribute, reverse engineer, profit from its sale or use, or incorporate it in any other software system.
  8. The source of information should be cited in all publications. The appropriate citation is associated with the data file used. Please see Suggested Citations in the Download HINTS Data section of this Web site, or the Readme.txt associated with the ASCII text version of the HINTS data.
  9. Analyses of large HINTS domains usually produce reliable estimates, but analyses of small domains may yield unreliable estimates, as indicated by their large variances. The analyst should pay particular attention to the standard error and coefficient of variation (relative standard error) for estimates of means, proportions, and totals, and the analyst should report these when writing up results. It is important that the analyst realizes that small sample sizes for particular analyses will tend to result in unstable estimates.
  10. You may receive periodic e-mail updates from the HINTS administrators.

Available HINTS Datasets

Visit the HINTS Data Errors, Remediation, and Recommendations page to access important information about HINTS data errors, remediation procedures, and resultant recommendations

If you require access to detailed geographic information or variables that have been suppressed in the public use datasets, please visit the Request Restricted HINTS Datasets page to learn how you can request restricted-use HINTS data

HINTS Data Linkage Project 2020 (HDLP)

The HINTS Data Linkage Project 2020 (HDLP) contains geo-coded, restricted, HINTS 5 Cycle 4 data (2020; n = 3,865) linked—at the county level-- with over 70 external variables chosen from trusted and reliable sources including the US Census, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The external variables fall into five categories: 1) Social and economic factors (e.g., Income inequality); 2) Demographics (e.g., Percent of population 65 or older); 3) Information technology (e.g., Percent of households with broadband internet); 4) Built environment (e.g., Fitness centers and recreational sports per 100,000 people); and 5) Physical environment (e.g., Percentage of days with good air quality). See the HDLP external variables codebook for a list of all variables.

Given the geocodes and potential for disclosure, the HDLP is not a public-use data file and anyone interested in accessing the data will first need to apply to access the data via the HINTS restricted-use data request form.

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HINTS-SEER (2021) dataset, updated November 2022

Total respondents: 1,234
Complete responses: 1,189
Partial responses**: 45

Because the HINTS-SEER dataset contains linked medical diagnosis variables and there is a potential for disclosure, HINTS-SEER is not a public-use data file that is available for download without first applying to use the data via the HINTS restricted-use data request form. Once the form has been submitted, it will be reviewed by a subcommittee of analysts and a member of the HINTS management team will be in touch with you via email within 2 weeks to discuss your request. To learn more about HINTS-SEER, please consult the methodology report and survey instrument.

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions in Sections A and B were answered. Only questions required of every respondent were factored into the completion rate calculation.

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HINTS 5, Cycle 4 (2020) dataset, updated May 2022

Total respondents: 3,865
Complete responses: 3,792
Partial responses**: 73

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B. Only questions required of every respondent were factored into the completion rate calculation.

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HINTS 5, Cycle 3 (2019) dataset, updated April 2021

Total respondents: 5,438
Complete responses: 5,247
Partial responses**: 191

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B. Only questions required of every respondent were factored in to the completion rate calculation.

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HINTS 5, Cycle 2 (2018) dataset, updated October 2020

Total respondents: 3,504
Complete responses: 3,434
Partial responses**: 70

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS 5, Cycle 1 (2017) dataset, updated June 2020

Total respondents: 3,285
Complete responses: 3,191
Partial responses**: 94

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS-FDA, Cycle 2 (2017) dataset, updated May 2018

Total respondents: 1,736
Complete responses: 1,676
Partial responses**: 60

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS-FDA (2015) dataset, updated September 2017 (See history document for change details)

Total respondents: 3,738
Complete responses: 3,595
Partial responses**: 143

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

HINTS data are available for public use. Learn about mode, trends and more in the HINTS FAQ.

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HINTS 4, Cycle 4 (2014) dataset, updated June 2021 (See history document for change details)

Total respondents: 3,677
Complete responses: 3,529
Partial responses**: 148

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS 4, Cycle 3 (2013) dataset, updated April 2021 (See history document for change details)

Total respondents: 3,185
Complete responses: 3,124
Partial responses**: 61

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS 4, Cycle 2 (2012) dataset, updated October 2020 (See history document for change details)

Total respondents: 3,630
Complete responses: 3,582
Partial responses**: 48

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS 4, Cycle 1 (2011) dataset, updated October 2020 (See history document for change details)

Total respondents: 3,959
Complete responses: 3,907
Partial responses**: 52

**Note: A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of Sections A and B were answered. A questionnaire was considered to be partially complete if 50% to 79% of the questions were answered in Sections A and B.

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HINTS Puerto Rico 2009

The University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Puerto Rico Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System, and the U.S. National Cancer Institute, implemented HINTS in Puerto Rico in 2009. A total of 639 (603 complete and 36 partially complete) interviews were conducted. Documentation is available to assist with analyzing the HINTS Puerto Rico data, including instructions on how to combine the dataset with HINTS 2007 for comparisons.

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HINTS 2007 Dataset, updated February 2009

CATI (Phone) completes: 3,767
CATI (Phone) partial completes: 325
Total CATI (Phone): 4,092
Partial completes were defined as cases where the respondent completed the first section (Health Communications) of the interview, but did not reach the end of the survey instrument.

Mail completes: 3,473
Mail partial completes: 109
Total Mail: 3,582
A questionnaire was considered to be complete if at least 80% of sections A, B, and C were filled in. To be considered partially complete, a questionnaire had to have between 50% and 79% of these sections filled.

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HINTS 2005 Dataset, updated June 2006

The full dataset (n=5586) includes respondents who completed the entire interview (Completes: n=5394) plus those who completed the Health Communication and General Cancer Questions only (Partial Completes: n=192).

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HINTS 2003 Dataset, updated June 2006

The full dataset (n=6369) includes respondents who completed the entire interview (Completes: n=6149) plus those who completed the Health Communication and General Cancer Questions only (Partial Completes: n=220).

You may also download the Codebook for interpreting data values along with unweighted and weighted frequencies.

For additional information about using HINTS data, please use our contact form or email NCIhints@mail.nih.gov.

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