Changelog • nhanesdata

nhanesdata 0.2.2

CRAN release: 2026-05-04

Fixed create_design() crash for any analysis including 1999 or 2001 NHANES cycles. The needs_2yr flag was referenced but never defined, causing object 'needs_2yr' not found at runtime.
Fixed create_design() requiring 2-year weight columns (wtint2yr, wtmec2yr) for datasets containing only 1999/2001 cycles, where those columns do not exist in NHANES demographic files.
Fixed fasting weight validation to check for wtsaf4yr when 1999/2001 cycles are present, matching the calculation logic that already used it.
Added wtsaf4yr to globalVariables() to resolve R CMD check NOTEs.
Corrected roxygen documentation that incorrectly stated 4-year fasting weights were not supported.

CRAN release: 2026-02-28

Converted vignettes from Quarto (.qmd) to R Markdown (.Rmd) to fix vignette build failures on Windows CI.

Adding create_design() function to return survey-weighted design data for use in downstream analyses. Combines cycles and properly accounts for weight type (interview, MEC, fasting) and adheres to CDC guidelines for use with earlier cycles. See CDC Weighting Guidelines for more information.

Released: Feb. 2026

Categorical columns across all datasets are now stored as character with human-readable labels instead of raw numeric codes. For example, BMX bmdbmic values like 2, 3, 4, 1 are now "Normal weight", "Overweight", "Obese", "Underweight". This affects 95 variables across 22 datasets.

Fixed data corruption where factor-to-numeric conversion returned internal level indices instead of actual CDC codes (e.g., codes 1, 3, 4 were silently stored as 1, 2, 3).
Fixed continuous variables like ridageyr and indfmpir being corrupted when categorical label mappings were incorrectly applied to them.
Fixed column type clashes when binding survey cycles where a column existed in some cycles but not others.

Cross-cycle label translation: when the CDC codebook is unavailable for a particular cycle, labels are now carried over from a sibling cycle so all waves have consistent human-readable values.
Added 5 new datasets: dxxag, l10, l10am, lab10, lab10am (71 datasets total).
Added inst/CITATION for citation("nhanesdata") support.

Added Amrit Baral, Natalie Neugaard, Johannes Thrul, and Janardan Devkota as contributors.

Released: Jan. 2026

Automated annual data updates via GitHub Actions with checksum-based change detection and Cloudflare R2 uploads.
Replaced pins with direct R2 uploads for simpler URL structure.
Added dataset catalog vignette with searchable table.

Initial development version with core functionality for accessing and managing NHANES data.