The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DRC), a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI), under a cooperative agreement with the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), is excited to announce the release of the National Performance Measures (NPMs) and National Outcome Measures (NOMs) data findings from the combined 2020-2021 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) through the interactive data query on childhealthdata.org! The combined 2020-2021 NSCH is the fifth multi-year dataset since the redesign of the NSCH in 2016 and includes data from 93,669 children ages 0-17 years.

The use of the combined datasets to produce state-level estimates is encouraged for NPM/NOMs where possible. The increased sample size from using multiple years of the NSCH allow Title V programs and researchers to produce more reliable national and state-level estimates, particularly for measures that are restricted to certain age ranges or subgroups (e.g. CSHCN). Click here to see the Guide to Multi-Year Estimates. See the DRC Interactive Data Query and the Changes to the Title V National Performance Measures and National Outcome Measures, 2016-2021 document for more information.

 For more information and resources on the NSCH, such as fast facts, guide to topics and questions, changes across years, survey methodology, survey instruments, and more, please visit the DRC NSCH Overview page. There are also numerous resources available at HRSA MCHB’s webpage on the NSCH, including the NSCH Data Brief on Health Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Public use files for the previous NSCH are also available through the U.S. Census Bureau’s NSCH page.

The remaining estimates of the combined 2020-2021 NSCH will be available through the interactive data query in November 2022, and downloadable datasets will be available in spring 2023.

The 2021 NSCH was the first to directly assess the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on health care use and childcare. Be on the lookout for the DRC’s single-year 2021 estimates, the downloadable datasets, and codebooks coming in late spring 2023. 

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U59MC27866, National Maternal and Child Health Data Resource Initiative, $4.5M. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position of or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.