PATH Study Data Access

PATH Study Location Characteristic Data Files from Wave 1 to 5

NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and NIH and FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) are announcing the availability of the adult and youth/parent Location Characteristics Restricted Use Files from Wave 1 (2013) through Wave 5 (2019) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study.

These newly-released variables characterize a respondent's neighborhood of residence as one of four basic locale types: City, Suburban, Town, or Rural. Providing an enhanced measure of a respondent’s location as more urban or rural improves the ability of researchers to understand relationships between tobacco use behaviors, health equity, and community characteristics. Researchers may apply for access to the RUF at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.

In addition, the PATH Study Biomarker Restricted-Use Files (RUF) have been updated to include additional panel assays from Wave 4 and Wave 5, which can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36840. The PATH Study Restricted-Use Files (RUF) have been updated to include Wave 7 state identifier, state design, and Tobacco Universal Product (UPC) data. The Restricted-Use and Public-Use Master Linkage Files have each been updated to reflect the new RUF files and the current availability of biospecimens in the Biospecimen Access Program. Master Linkage Files can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38008.

Members of the research community are encouraged to apply for access to the Restricted-Use Files through https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231 and Biomarker Restricted-Use Files at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36840. Public-Use Files are also available for download at https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36498. In addition, the Biospecimen Access Program webpage at http://bit.ly/2wBFOtc provides information on how to access the urine, serum, plasma, and genomic DNA (gDNA) collected from adult PATH Study participants during Wave 1 (2013 – 2014) and urine collected during Wave 2 (2014 – 2015), Wave 3 (2015-2016), Wave 4 (2016-2018), and Wave 5 (2018-2019).

The PATH Study is a household-based, nationally representative, longitudinal cohort study of youth (12-17 years old) and adults in the United States. It was launched in 2011 to inform the FDA’s regulatory activities under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Questions regarding accessing the PATH Study can be sent to NAHDAP@icpsr.umich.edu.
Questions about the collection, content, weighting, documentation, or structure of PATH Study data may be submitted to PATHDataUserQuestions@Westat.com (not to be used for questions about statistical analysis or analytic guidance).