Sunday, June 1, 2025
6/1/2025
Tennessee Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (TN BRFSS) - The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) has been successfully conducting the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) since its inception in 1984 (40 years). Each year, a random selection of non-institutionalized adults across the state are surveyed about their health-related risk behaviors, chronic health conditions, and use of preventive services. The Tennessee (TN) BRFSS program is currently housed within the Office of Population Health Surveillance in the Division of Population Health Assessment (PHA) at TDH. The program continues to be an important part of TDH’s demonstrated commitment to surveillance and evaluation and its data is regularly integrated into program planning and policy development that supports a variety of public health topics and activities, including primary prevention, tobacco use, cancer screening, injury and occupational health surveillance, food security and nutrition, minority health, cognitive decline, and support of social determinants of health and health equity. Through this application, TDH is requesting funds to continue to oversee the TN BRFSS program for the five-year cycle proposed in the NOFO. The TN BRFSS program aims to continue to collect quality data throughout each calendar year of the next performance period and use the data to monitor the health status and health behaviors of the people of Tennessee. The TN BRFSS program will also continue to collaborate with state, local, and CDC programs and provide data to support policy planning, program development, and additional surveillance efforts, particularly among underrepresented communities of Appalachian and Spanish-speaking/other non-English speaking minorities. During the five-year period of performance, the TN BRFSS program has the outcomes of increasing timeliness and access to BRFSS data for local areas; increasing sharing and use of data among partners who promote health equity within underrepresented communities; and expanding communication and marketing campaigns related to accessing the data with partners or advisory groups of underrepresented communities. As of April 2024, the TN BRFSS survey is administered by a contract call center, Louisiana State University Public Policy Research Lab (LSU PPRL) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who has administered the TN BRFSS survey since 2014. LSU PPRL utilizes WinCATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing). The proposed 2023 TN BRFSS sample size target was a total of 5,508 complete interviews (564 landline and 4,944 cell phone interviews). In 2021, TN BRFSS achieved 4,788 completes and achieved 5,065 completes for 2022, and 5,568 completes for 2023. Like that for 2023, the target number of completes for the 2024 survey year is 5,508. Achieving this sample size for 2024 and a similar size for subsequent years of the performance period will allow Tennessee’s data to be included in the national BRFSS dataset and serve as an important data source for state and local agencies as well as other organizations across Tennessee.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).