BRFSS Data Collection Contract

To ensure the health and well-being of people in Mississippi, the Mississippi State Department of Health, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), administers the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). The BRFSS is administered and supported by CDC's Population Health Surveillance Branch, under the Division of Population Health at CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The BRFSS is the nation's premier system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents, aged 18 and older, regarding their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. Established in 1984 with 15 states, BRFSS now collects data in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories. The BRFSS completes more than 400,000 adult interviews each year, making it the largest continuously conducted health survey system in the world. The Mississippi BRFSS generally completes between 4,000 and 5,000 surveys annually. The Mississippi BRFSS is designed to generate statistically valid estimates of state residents’ health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. The BRFSS questionnaire is designed and approved by a working group of BRFSS state coordinators and CDC staff. A typical BRFSS questionnaire has three parts: 1) the core component, consisting of the fixed core, rotating core, and emerging core sections; 2) optional modules; and 3) state-added questions. All participating sites must ask the core component questions without modification; however, the modules and state-added questions are optional and may be selected by the site at its discretion.