The Basics: Baseline Survey Details and Resources

Survey Design

The Basics survey is a baseline instrument that asks basic demographic questions, including questions about a participant’s work and home. The survey includes a total of 73 items (44 main items and 29 related follow-ups) sourced from well-established studies including National Health and Examination Survey (NHANES), the United States Census, the National Health Interview (NHIS) survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and the UK Biobank among others. 

Scoring Considerations for the Basics Survey

Because the Basics survey is composed of items from various sources and is mainly categorical in nature, it can not be scored as a whole. In addition, the survey does not include any source-derived scales that can be scored individually. 

Sample Eligibility

The survey is considered a “baseline” program activity and is available to all All of Us participants following completion of the program consent. Participants are required to complete the Basics survey before they are invited to participate in other program activities including additional surveys or collection of specimens and physical measurements. For more information about survey samples and releases, please see Introduction to All of Us Survey Collection and Date Transformation Methods.

Data Model & Privacy Protection Considerations

All survey codebook variables (e.g., source codes) are deposited into the OMOP Common Data Model’s observation table and stored as concepts in an AoU specific “PPI” vocabulary. This vocabulary is both browsable and downloadable via Athena, the online OMOP repository - for a listing of concepts specific to the Basics survey, please see this Athena entry. 

Select items from the Basics survey have been either suppressed or generalized within the Registered and Controlled Tiers. To see privacy information, please review the All of Us survey codebook and How All of Us Protects Participant Privacy. Note: participant demographics from the Basics survey are used to populate the OMOP person table in both the Registered and Controlled Tier CDRs; select privacy generalizations noted will be observed there.