BRFSS Vision Impairment and Eye Health Survey Data (2005-2016)

Survey data from the retired Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Vision Module covers 2005 to 2016. It includes responses to questions on vision impairment, access to eye care, and self-reported eye diseases, collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The dataset contains aggregated estimates for various demographic and geographic subgroups.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in Data_Value for Question like 'Are you blind or do you have serious difficulty seeing...' over Year and by Break_Out categories such as age or gender.
• Compare vision impairment prevalence (Data_Value) across different Geographic Level (state, city) using LocationAbbr and LocationDesc.
• Investigate correlations between eye disease responses in the Topic field and other BRFSS risk factors using the DataSource identifier.
• Assess confidence in survey estimates by examining Low_Confidence_limit and High_Confidence_Limit for specific QuestionId and ResponseId combinations.

Strengths

• Data spans 12 years from 2005 to 2016, allowing longitudinal analysis.
• Contains 28 columns including geographic detail (GeoLocation fields), demographic breakdowns (Break_Out), and statistical confidence intervals.

Limitations

• Dataset is retired; core vision question data after 2013 resides in a separate surveillance system.
• Contains aggregated estimates (Data_Value); individual respondent-level records are not available.
• Sample_Size for specific estimates is provided but total row count for the full dataset is unknown.

Provenance

Source

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Collection Method

Aggregated estimates from state-based telephone surveys of adult residents.

Time Range

2005 to 2016.

Freshness

Last updated on 2025-03-26, but data content covers 2005-2016 only.

Geography

United States, with data available at state and city levels (LocationAbbr, LocationDesc).