The Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW) has been collecting data annually since 2008. The data and biospecimen are made available to qualified investigators and organizations to support cutting-edge research and discoveries that aim to improve health. We work with partners to ensure all human subject protections are properly in place before sharing data.
Survey Data
- Public Use Datasets | Available to anyone | FREE
- Restricted Use Data | Require IRB Approval | Subject to Fee Structure
- Original COVID-19 data
- For variables that were modified for de-identification purposes
- SHOW 2008-2013 data
- For variables that were modified for de-identification purposes
- SHOW 2014-2016 data
- SHOW 2017 data
- SHOW 2018-2019 data
- City of Milwaukee Cohort
- Data on minors (n=980 from 2014-2019)
- Original COVID-19 data
For more information on accessing restricted data, see our data access and use page, and submit our data request form. For more information on how our data is collected, please see our Survey Methods page. See codebooks with frequencies for all survey topics on our codebooks website.
Survey Instruments
SHOW scientists use validated health questionnaires. Researchers are welcome to use our instruments for their own data collection.
Our survey/instrument topics fall into the following areas, please visit our topics page to view specifics:
- Objective Measures of Health
- Health & Health History
- Mental Health
- Healthcare
- Health-related Behaviors
- Physical & Built Environment
- Social & Socioeconomic Determinants of Health
- COVID-19
- Demographics
Codebooks with frequencies and variables for all survey topics by year can be found on our codebooks website.
Fees for Services
SHOW now uses a fee-for-service model for all of the services listed above. Gathering quality survey data and biospecimen from around the state and offering high-quality services require resources from funders as well as cost-sharing from investigators using our services.
SHOW’s standard rate for data & analytic services is $123/hr for those within the UW, with a 15% discount for Cancer Center Members ($104.55/hr) and a 15% non-UW surcharge ($141.45/hr).
| Request Type | Estimated Cost Range Depending on complexity |
IRB requirements |
| Initial 30-minute Consultation Meeting | FREE | NO |
| Public use data sets | FREE | NO |
Restricted use data sets & data processing
|
$3000+ | YES |
|
Geographical linkage to other public use data (GIS-based linkage to census data, greenspace, DNR info, etc) |
$4000-$6000 | YES |
| Analytical & data science support
(Basic statistics, table shells, multivariate linear logistic regression, etc) |
TBD | YES |
Vital records & surveillance data Linkage
|
TBD | YES |
SHOW is temporarily not fulfilling data requests staff work urgently to complete data harmonization and migration to the cloud-based Platform X this fall. Please check back in January 2024 for data access.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
If you are requesting restricted use data or processing, geographical data linkages, vital records or surveillance data linkages, analytical & data science support, or biospecimen, you will need to provide the following before receiving requested data:
- IRB approval letter, and
- A .pdf version of your IRB application
UW affiliation: If you are a UW student, post-doc, academic staff, and/or investigator, scientist, professor: you need to acquire UW Health Sciences IRB or IRB exemption (via ARROW); More information on UW IRB exemption is below (or website link)
Non-UW affiliation: If you are a non-UW researcher, clinician, investigator, student: you need to acquire IRB or IRB exemption from your institution.
Is an IRB approval needed, or IRB exemption needed?
Many secondary data analyses conducted with de-identified, coded data are IRB exempt, but we require a copy of IRB exemption approval letter and application before we can provide requested data. Depending on the scope of research, a full IRB may be needed.
We require IRB exemption for all public health surveillance and monitoring, not just primary research. These can be done under typical Wisconsin Department of Human Services or local health department services IRB protocol and processes. See our UW IRB Help Document for more on seeking an exemption.