Rationale, Procedures, and Response Rates for the 2015 Administration of NCI’s Health Information National Trends Survey: HINTS-FDA 2015

Abstract

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) developed the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) to monitor population trends in cancer communication practices, information preferences, health risk behaviors, attitudes, and cancer knowledge. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized HINTS as a unique data resource for informing its health communication endeavors and partnered with NCI to field HINTS-FDA 2015. HINTS-FDA 2015 was a self-administered paper instrument sent by mail May 29 to September 8, 2015, using a random probability-based sample of U.S. postal addresses stratified by county-level smoking rates, with an oversampling of high and medium-high smoking strata to increase the yield of current smokers responding to the survey. The response rate for HINTS-FDA 2015 was 33% (N = 3,738). The yield of current smokers (n = 495) was lower than expected, but the sampling strategy achieved the goal of obtaining more former smokers (n = 1,132). Public-use HINTS-FDA 2015 data and supporting documentation have been available for download and secondary data analyses since June 2016 at http://hints.cancer.gov. NCI and FDA encourage the use of HINTS-FDA for health communication research and practice related to tobacco-related communications, public knowledge, and behaviors as well as beliefs and actions related to medical products and dietary supplements.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Westat staff members Aaron Maitland, Katy Trundle, Margaret Pacious, and Melissa Brown for their work on HINTS-FDA (Health Information National Trends Survey–U.S. Food and Drug Administration) instrument development and survey administration and the respondents to the HINTS-FDA survey. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nor does the mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government. The findings and conclusion in this report are our own and may not necessarily represent positions or policies of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or National Institutes of Health.

Funding

HINTS-FDA (Health Information National Trends Survey–U.S. Food and Drug Administration) was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products, Office of the Commissioner, and Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition via interagency agreements with NCI and by contract from NCI to Westat, Inc. (HHSN261201000064C).

Additional information

Funding

HINTS-FDA (Health Information National Trends Survey–U.S. Food and Drug Administration) was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products, Office of the Commissioner, and Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition via interagency agreements with NCI and by contract from NCI to Westat, Inc. (HHSN261201000064C).