The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study is a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study of tobacco use and how it affects the health of people in the United States. It was launched in 2011 as a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); data collection began in 2013 and is planned through 2024. Participants were recruited by a stratified address-based, area-probability sampling design, oversampling adult tobacco users, young adults (18–24 years), and African American adults. For the baseline wave (Wave 1), the study sampled over 150,000 mailing addresses across the United States to create the national sample of tobacco users and non-users. At Waves 4 and 7, probability samples were recruited from residential addresses not selected during previous waves in the same sampled Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) and segments using similar within-household procedures; these "replenishment samples" were combined for estimation and purposes with adult and youth respondents from their respective waves.

Each case in an Adult data file represents a single, completed interview. Each case in a Youth data file represents one youth and his or her parent's responses about that youth. When multiple youth from the same household were selected to be in the study, the parent(s) completed separate interviews about each youth. Youth who turn 18 by the current wave of data collection are considered "aged-up adults" and are invited to complete the Adult Interview. Respondents are asked to complete an interview at each follow-up wave. Additionally, "shadow youth" (youth ages 9 to 11 sampled at Wave 1) are considered "aged-up youth" upon turning 12 years old, when they are asked to complete an interview after parental consent. Adult interviews covered use of tobacco and nicotine products, peer and family opinions of tobacco use, health and quality of life outcomes, and tobacco product advertising. Youth interviews also included questions about media use and use of other substances; parents were asked about their youth's home and school life as well as their own use of tobacco products.

Questions about the collection, content, weighting, documentation, or structure of PATH Study data may be submitted to PATHDataUserQuestions@Westat.com. NOTE: This email address is not for questions about statistical analysis or analytic guidance. For analytic questions, researchers may wish to consult with statisticians and analysts at their institutions.