TY - JOUR AU - Pierannunzi, Carol AU - Xu, Fang AU - Wallace, Robyn C. AU - Garvin, William AU - Greenlund, Kurt J. AU - Bartoli, William PY - 2016 TI - A Methodological Approach to Small Area Estimation for the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System T2 - Preventing Chronic Disease JO - Prev Chronic Dis SP - E91 VL - 13 CY - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA. N2 - Public health researchers have used a class of statistical methods to calculate prevalence estimates for small geographic areas with few direct observations. Many researchers have used Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data as a basis for their models. The aims of this study were to 1) describe a new BRFSS small area estimation (SAE) method and 2) investigate the internal and external validity of the BRFSS SAEs it produced. The BRFSS SAE method uses 4 data sets (the BRFSS, the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample, Nielsen Claritas population totals, and the Missouri Census Geographic Equivalency File) to build a single weighted data set. Our findings indicate that internal and external validity tests were successful across many estimates. The BRFSS SAE method is one of several methods that can be used to produce reliable prevalence estimates in small geographic areas. SN - 1545-1151 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.150480 DO - 10.5888/pcd13.150480 ER -