Canadian Health Measures Survey: sampling strategy overview.

This article presents an overview of the sampling strategy developed for the Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). The CHMS was designed to collect key health information using a computer-assisted personal interview and a physical health examination. It began in March 2007 and will be conducted to 2009. A nationally representative sample of approximately 5,000 respondents aged 6 to 79 will be interviewed at home and asked to visit a mobile clinic where health care professionals measure several aspects of their physical health. The CHMS presents several challenges including: the need to have respondents who live within a reasonable commuting distance of the clinics; the difficulty of reaching the desired sample size for youths; and sub-sampling of measures related to exposure to environmental pollutants. The sampling strategy described in this article will address these challenges.