Article: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System is a United States national health survey that looks at behavioral risk factors. It is administered by telephone and is the world's largest telephone survey.

Individual states can add their own questions to the survey instrument, which consists of a core set of questions on certain topics like car safety, obesity, or exercise. States get funding from the federal government to administer these questionnaires, and they pay for the additional questions themselves.

The U.S. federal government can then compare states based on the core questions to allocate funding and focus interventions. The states themselves also use the survey results to focus interventions for the public, to decide what is worth their while to focus on.