Tennessee Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

Tennessee Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System conducts annual surveys to collect data on Tennesseans’ health behaviors, chronic conditions, and access to care.

About TN BRFSS

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a telephone interviewing project conducted in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Participating states develop annual surveys to collect data regarding health experiences, health behaviors and risk factors, chronic disease, and access to health care. Surveys are asked of adult (18+) state residents from randomly selected households.

The data collected by the BRFSS helps monitor state-level prevalence of the major behavioral risks associated with premature sickness and death among adults. It can also be used to identify high risk populations that can be targeted for intervention programs, and in turn assess the impact of any policy or health promotion and prevention intervention programs.

Many of the behavioral risk factors surveyed in this system cannot be obtained from any other health statistics sources; the BRFSS serves as an important, timely, accurate, and often sole resource in measuring and monitoring the personal health behaviors and lifestyle conditions that are related to good or poor health outcomes or situations.

Currently, every state in the country, the District of Columbia, and three U.S. territories participate in the BRFSS. The Tennessee Department of Health has been participating in this system on a continuing basis since 1984.

To find out which questions were asked for a given year, please refer to the BRFSS Matrix .

Help Tennessee Hear Your Voice

The Tennessee Department of Health might call you to participate in the Tennessee Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System by answering a questionnaire.

Your answers can help TDH improve the health of Tennesseans by:

  • Identifying health issues
  • Developing programs that focus on buildidng the health of the people around you
  • Supporting laws that keep people safe
  • Supporting disease prevention programs that can help you and those around you.

The BRFSS Methodology

BRFSS is a survey meant to represent Tennessee’s adult population, so its data must be weighted, or extrapolated to the greater population of the state.  While complicated and detailed, the CDC uses a variety of demographic and sampling (cluster and stratum) information to complete this process. More detail on the CDC’s weighting methodology can be found here: Weighting the BRFSS Data (cdc.gov).After BRFSS data is successfully weighted, any given respondent’s answers to the survey will represent a certain number of residents who are similar to or just like the respondent in demographics and geographic location.

A geographic region must have at least 500 respondents in order to be weighted appropriately (which is why county-level estimates cannot be created), and until the 14 Public Health Regions in Tennessee have 500 respondents in each region, the TN BRFSS will continue to utilize the state’s three Grand Divisions (west, middle, and east) as the most granular geographic variable to obtain estimates for.

The BRFSS went through a couple of methodological changes in 2011; therefore, data users should use caution when comparing any surveys from 2011 forward to any previous surveys. Please see the following CDC website for more information on the change in methodology: Change in BRFSS Methodology. 

For more information on general BRFSS data collection protocol and methodology, refer to The BRFSS Data User Guide.

To find out which questions were asked for a given year, please refer to the BRFSS Matrix .

The TDH BRFSS team is happy to provide data and statistical expertise for any of your research or program needs. Please visit the data request system website  to submit a data request, or contact the BRFSS Coordinator.

Related BRFSS Links

External links and accessibility notice:
Some of the following resources link to external websites not managed by the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH). TDH is not responsible for the content, accessibility, or privacy practices of these external sites.

CDC BRFSS

CDC YRBSS

The Tennessee Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) is a survey conducted by the Tennessee Department of Education that collects similar data to the BRFSS in a younger population (under 18 years of age). 

TN BRFSS Newsletters & Publications

 Health Literacy in Tennessee, 2020

Caregiving in an Aging Population Implications Among Tennessee Adults, 2019 & 2021

Positive Childhood Experiences in Tennessee

The Big-4 - A brief illustrating the status of Tennessee’s biggest 4 risk factors: Obesity, Physical inactivity, Tobacco use, and Substance abuse from the TN BRFSS, 2011-2015.​

 TN BRFSS Matrix - A useful resource document for data users detailing which modules were asked in a given year in the Tennessee BRFSS questionnaire. 

Tobacco Factsheet - A summary of tobacco and e-cigarette use from 2017 TN BRFSS. 

Emergency Preparedness Factsheet – an overview of general emergency preparedness measures taken by adult Tennesseans in 2015

Quarterly Newsletters

TN BRFSS Reports & Codebooks

Report Descriptions

Calculated: A report showing calculated variables by demographics. Calculated variables are variables that the CDC creates using one or more existing variables. An example is _BMI5CAT, which calculates Body Mass Index using the respondent’s self-reported height and weight variables.

Codebook: A state-specific codebook illustrating the name and dispositions of each variable used in Tennessee. State added questions are not in this report and can be found in the state added questions codebook.

Core Sections: A report showing core section variables by demographics. Core sections are sets of variables that all BRFSS states and participating territories must use. Some core questions are asked every year, and others are asked every 2-3 years.

Optional Modules: A report showing optional module variables by demographics. Optional modules are sets of variables that all states and participating territories have the option of using. Usually a long list is offered that states choose from. In Tennessee, BRFSS data users can voice for their need for specific optional module(s) to be included in the next year’s survey during the bi-annual Data Users Group meetings.

State Added Codebook: A state-specific codebook illustrating the name and dispositions of each state added variable.

State Added Report: A report showing state added question variables by demographics. State added questions are sets of variables or just single questions that the state deems important to have on their survey in a given year. State added questions are usually previous core or optional modules since these have already been field and cognitively tested. A useful resource document for data users detailing which modules were asked in a given year in the Tennessee BRFSS questionnaire.

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This Page Last Updated: March 26, 2026 at 3:48 PM