Health Survey Data Analysis of BMI

Surveys are often used to study health behavior and determine the risks of disease. Meanwhile, seemingly every day, news outlets publish a different "research says" article about how to lose weight (fast! with no effort at all!). In this project, you will use survey data of ~20k people sampled from the United States to explore health behaviors associated with lower Body Mass Index (BMI), a standardized measure of healthy weight and obesity. Surveys with complex designs use special statistical methods to incorporate sampling weights and design factors into the estimation and inference. Incorporating survey design methods, you will use multiple regression to handle confounders when testing whether physical activity is associated with lower BMI.

This project will use National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data from ~20,000 participants surveyed in years 2009-2012 found in the NHANES R package.