Search NHANES Variables by Term or Phrase

A convenience wrapper around nhanesA::nhanesSearch that returns a simplified, concise output focused on variable names, descriptions, and survey years. Results are sorted by year (most recent first) and then by variable name.

Usage

term_search(var)

Arguments

var

Character. Search term or phrase to find in variable names or descriptions. Case-insensitive. Special regex characters are automatically escaped for literal matching.

Value

A data.frame with 4 columns:

• Variable.Name: NHANES variable code

• Variable.Description: Description of the variable

• Data.File.Name: Name of the data file containing the variable

• Begin.Year: Starting year of the survey cycle (numeric)

Results are sorted by Begin.Year (descending) then Variable.Name. Returns an empty data.frame with correct structure if no matches found.

See also

var_search for searching by exact variable name, get_url for getting documentation URLs, nhanesSearch for the underlying search function

Other search and lookup functions: get_url(), var_search()

Examples

# \donttest{
# Search for diabetes-related variables (showing first 5 results)
term_search("diabetes") |> head(5)
#>   Variable.Name
#> 1        DID040
#> 2        DIQ010
#> 3        DIQ160
#> 4        DIQ180
#> 5        DID040
#>                                                                                                               Variable.Description
#> 1 How old {was SP/were you} when a doctor or other health professional first told {you/him/her} that {you/he/she} had diabetes or 
#> 2 The next questions are about specific medical conditions. {Other than during pregnancy, {have you/has SP}/{Have you/Has SP}} eve
#> 3 {Have you/Has SP} ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that {you have/SP has} any of the following:  prediabe
#> 4                                 {Have you/Has SP} had a blood test for high blood sugar or diabetes within the past three years?
#> 5 How old {was SP/were you} when a doctor or other health professional first told {you/him/her} that {you/he/she} had diabetes or 
#>   Data.File.Name Begin.Year
#> 1          DIQ_L       2021
#> 2          DIQ_L       2021
#> 3          DIQ_L       2021
#> 4          DIQ_L       2021
#> 5          DIQ_J       2017

# Search for blood pressure measurements (showing first 5 results)
term_search("blood pressure") |> head(5)
#>   Variable.Name
#> 1        BPQ020
#> 2        BPQ030
#> 3        BPQ150
#> 4      BPAOMNTS
#> 5        BPD035
#>                                                                                                               Variable.Description
#> 1 {Have you/Has SP} ever been told by a doctor or other health professional that {you/s/he} had hypertension, also called high blo
#> 2          {Were you/Was SP} told on 2 or more different visits that {you/s/he} had hypertension, also called high blood pressure?
#> 3                    {Are you/Is SP} now taking any medication prescribed by a doctor for {your/his/her/SP's} high blood pressure?
#> 4 Difference in minutes between blood pressure obtained by a physician with a mercury sphygmomanometer (legacy) and blood pressure
#> 5       How old {were you/was SP} when {you were/he/she was} first told that {you/he/she} had hypertension or high blood pressure?
#>   Data.File.Name Begin.Year
#> 1          BPQ_L       2021
#> 2          BPQ_L       2021
#> 3          BPQ_L       2021
#> 4         BPXO_J       2017
#> 5          BPQ_J       2017
# }