Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System: Information for Researchers and Data Users

Data resources and documentation

Wisconsin Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data can be accessed by the Department of Health Services (DHS) and CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) data portals and query systems. See the “Reports and Products” page for links. CDC also releases national datasets each year on their BRFSS webpage.

Note that the CDC national data set does not include data at a geographical level more specific than the state (for example, county level) or questions that are unique to Wisconsin and not required by CDC (for example, prescription pain medication module).

Wisconsin BRFSS questionnaires and codebooks

For questionnaire and codebook documentation from earlier years, contact dhsbrfss@dhs.wisconsin.gov.

Requesting Wisconsin BRFSS data

If the existing DHS and CDC data portals, public data files, and reports do not meet your needs, users may request BRFSS data from DHS.

To request data, please email the BRFSS director at dhsbrfss@dhs.wisconsin.gov for a data application.

When completing this application, please refer to the questionnaires and codebooks for information about which questions were included and which variables are available for each year of data.

For data questionnaires and codebooks from over five years ago, email dhsbrfss@dhs.wisconsin.gov.