(stick tap to @winstonlarson for his existing BRFSS dataset analysis and the general description below of the BRFSS)
This is a repo to explore the BRFSS AD and Healthy Aging Data, specifically to investigate how self reported cognitive decline has changed from 2015-2020, and its associated comorbidities.
Insights into health and behavior using data from the CDC
BRFSS Introduction Every year since 1984, government employees have called around the country and asked the people who pick up a series of probing questions about their health and what they're doing about it. While it may sound annoying, the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) provides a wealth of information about health and health-related behaviors in the United States. It is the largest and longest running health survey system in the world, and in its current incarnation, it covers over 400,000 adult interviews from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and three territories. For more information about the survey itself, you should check out the CDC BRFSS site.
The BRFSS is a rich source of information on how demographics, behaviors, and other risk factors can correlate with health. Many important population health studies and measures use the BRFSS as a key data source. For example, it is the source of the CDC's "Healthy Days" measurement, a key performance metric for the healthcare industry.
Unfortunately, BRFSS data isn't exactly easy to deal with. Its breadth and structure have changed considerably over the years, and there are important sampling considerations that must be taken into account when using the data to draw conclusions. My goal is to build this repository over time to demonstrate how to use BRFSS data and some of the interesting correlations and associations that can be drawn from this data set using machine learning and statistical techniques.
Alzheimer_s_Disease_and_Healthy_Aging_Data.csv This data set contains data from BRFSS, years 2015-2020. 214k rows x 39 columns.
