CU Health Surveys

CU Health Surveys has conducted survey research on the health and wellbeing of Colorado for over 20 years. Topics include chronic disease prevention, tobacco and nicotine use, and emerging topics in health and policy initiatives. Some examples of recent surveys include cancer perceptions, knowledge, and treatment-seeking behaviors; access to healthcare and insurance coverage; lung cancer screening rates; impact of cardiovascular disease on tobacco and nicotine use; mental health and smoking and vaping; and trends in oral nicotine pouch use.    

No. CU Health Surveys conduct survey research, not biomedical research. We are interested in learning about knowledge, behavior, and attitudes related to community health.

In the spring of 2022 or spring of 2025, you were randomly invited to take part in the Colorado Health Survey (also known as the Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors Survey or TABS) with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. When you completed this survey, you were asked if you would like to participate in future research studies. Because you agreed, you provided one or more types of contact information and became a member of our voluntary panel.

CU Health Surveys is the group that oversees all survey research for the Community Epidemiology and Program Evaluation Group at CU Anschutz Cancer Center.  CHEC on Health is the voluntary panel that participates in survey research. Members of the panel were randomly selected to participate in the Colorado Health Survey, also known as the Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors Survey (TABS).  New members are added every three to four years.

CHEC on Health is a voluntary panel of over 11,000 Colorado residents who participate in research surveys. CU Health Surveys reaches out to participants using their provided form(s) of contact – email, phone, text, or paper mail – a few times per year. Members of the panel may get an incentive – like a gift card – when they verify contact information or complete surveys. Survey participation is always voluntary. CHEC on Health panel members may choose to participate in any survey—or not—any time they are contacted. Participation in the CHEC on Health panel is also voluntary. You may also elect to leave the panel at any time by contacting CU Health Surveys. We will remove your contact information from our panel, and you will no longer receive invitations to participate in future surveys.

CU Health Surveys may contact you through email, text, paper mail, or over the telephone to verify or update your contact information, or to complete surveys. If you ever have any questions or concerns about who is contacting you or why, please contact [email protected] or call us at 1-855-227-5431. This is the CU Health Surveys dedicated customer service line. One of our supervisors will return your call within 24 hours or 1 business day. You can also schedule a return follow-up call at a time that is convenient for you.

CU Health Surveys will never ask for money or credit card information. 

To best maintain your privacy, we do not share any information that we have about you. This is to protect your identity and contact information in case we happen to reach someone who is not you.

Participation in CU Health Surveys is always voluntary. CHEC on Health panel members may choose to participate in any survey—or not—any time they are contacted.

Your contact information is protected and stored separately from your survey data on an encrypted, secure server at the CU Anschutz campus. Only trained survey research professionals who work for CU Health Surveys can access your contact information and only under specific circumstances. 

Survey data is anonymous and contains no information that would link it back to individual respondents. Your anonymous survey responses are often combined with responses from other panel members for a particular survey. These large anonymous, combined (or aggregate) datasets may be shared with our partners for research purposes, or with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and other stakeholders to inform health policy decisions.

Are there times where confidentiality cannot be maintained?

There are some instances where confidentiality cannot be guaranteed, for example, if someone is at risk of imminent danger, or threatens to harm themselves or others.

Researchers use your anonymous survey data to provide stakeholders across Colorado with critical information about issues like chronic disease prevention, tobacco and nicotine use, and emerging health topics. We will share key findings with CHEC on Health participants through newsletters and on this website. Please check back here periodically for more information about how your data impacts our state.

The most important reason for this is that we want to understand how your health and behaviors change. By comparing answers to the same questions from different survey years, we can assess how knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors may change over time.  CEPEG and CU Health Surveys are working to expand our research partnerships so that we can include questions on a broader range of health topics in future surveys.

No. CU Health Surveys conducts survey research, not biomedical research. We are interested in learning about your knowledge, behavior, and attitudes regarding your health.

CU Health Surveys will reach out to you using contact information you provided – email, phone, text, or paper mail – a few times per year. We hope you will participate in surveys on a regular basis and keep us updated on your best contact information. We will provide you with several opportunities to verify your contact information each year. Of course, participation in CU Health Surveys is always voluntary.

To update your contact information, please contact CU Health Surveys at [email protected] or call us at 1-855-227-5431. If we can still reach you at one of the forms of contact you provided, you will be able to update your information any time we contact you with a survey opportunity.

You must be a Colorado resident to be an eligible participant. You can update your eligibility status by contacting CU Health Surveys at [email protected] or call us at 1-855-227-5431.

Yes! CEPEG maintains several datasets available for research purposes. Key data sources include the Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors Survey (TABS on Health), a population-weighted cross-sectional surveillance survey conducted every three to four years among Colorado adults (18+).

TABS data can be linked to the Colorado Health Exposures and Smoking Survey (CHESS), a follow-back survey involving a subset of TABS participants for longitudinal analysis of specific health indicators. For more information, please contact CU Health Surveys at [email protected].

CEPEG and CU Health Surveys serve as a collaborative hub for research and survey data collection. Our multidisciplinary team offers advanced expertise in survey design, execution, and analytics to support academic, community, and policy-driven research across a broad range of critical health issues.

Our core services include:

• Survey Design & Development: Instrument design, testing, and validation.
• Strategic Sampling: Complex sample theory and population weighting.
• Multi-Modal Data Collection: Integrated outreach via text, web, telephone, and paper.
• Advanced Analytics: Predictive modeling and sophisticated survey data analysis.
• Large-Scale Outreach: Capacity to manage cohorts of up to 15,000 participants.
• Access to the CHEC on Health standing panel 

Partner with Us

We invite researchers to collaborate with us to ensure the highest standards of data integrity. To discuss your project or learn how CEPEG and CU Health Surveys can support your research, please contact us at [email protected].

CU Health Surveys conducts surveys on diverse health topics throughout the year. We invite you to contact CEPEG and CU Health Surveys at [email protected] to discuss how our survey schedule can support your research goals and to explore potential partnership opportunities.

The CHEC on Health Panel is a powerful bridge connecting researchers with community members throughout Colorado. In collaboration with CU Health Surveys, researchers can selectively engage specific segments of the panel to conduct highly targeted studies or pilot projects. Please contact us at [email protected] for more information about upcoming survey opportunities. By leveraging the panel’s demographic and behavioral data, we can focus outreach and survey recruitment to get you the data you need.

CU Health Surveys offers students hands-on experience in every phase of survey research including survey design, programming, professional interviewing, analytics, and data visualization. We also offer Practicum opportunities in survey research methods.   

Yes! CEPEG maintains several datasets available for research purposes. Key data sources include the Tobacco Attitudes and Behaviors Survey (TABS on Health), a population-weighted cross-sectional surveillance survey conducted every three to four years among Colorado adults (18+).  

 

TABS data can be linked to the Colorado Health Exposures and Smoking Survey (CHESS), a follow-back survey involving a subset of TABS participants for longitudinal analysis of specific health indicators. For more information, please contact CU Health Surveys at [email protected].