Jun 26, 2026 By Brad Hundt 2 min read

Some Washington County residents could be receiving a letter next month asking them to participate in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

What is that? It goes by the NHANES for short, and is sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The survey is designed, basically, to find out about the health of Americans.

According to a NHANES news release, Washington County has been selected as one of the communities for the survey. About 600 households will receive a letter asking them if they would like to participate. They will then be contacted to see if anyone in the household is eligible.

Those who are deemed eligible will be interviewed in their homes and receive a health exam in the NHANES Mobile Exam Center. The exam will collect information on the participant’s height and weight, blood pressure, vision, oral health and more.

The survey will be focusing primarily on residents in the city of Washington and Canonsburg, according to Alexa Ortiz, a spokeswoman for NHANES. No adjacent counties will be part of this year’s survey, she said.

All the data that is collected is kept confidential. Participation is voluntary. The mobile exam center will be at the Tanger Outlets Pittsburgh shopping center in South Strabane from mid-July through September.

Carolyn Greene, acting director of the National Center for Health Statistics, said the survey “serves as the nation’s ‘health check-up’ by going into communities throughout the country to collect health information.”

The information is used to develop public health policies, and establish a national baseline on things like blood pressure and cholesterol averages.

Participants will be compensated for the cost of transportation, or providing care for a child or adult. The release from NHANES also says participants will receive “a generous token of appreciation for their time.”

Additional information is available at www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.