Ultimately, the NATS was designed to yield data representative and comparable at both national and state levels. Furthermore, the sample design aims to provide national estimates for subgroups defined by gender, age, and race/ethnicity.

The SGM questions are a core component of the questionnaire under the ‘Closing Questions’ section.

Survey Sample Population

The survey population for NATS is non-institutionalized adults ages 18 years and older residing in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The sample design is a dual-frame Random Digit Dialing (RDD) sample, with independent samples drawn from landline and cell phone frames.

The NATS 2013−2014 used a non-overlapping design, where the cell phone frame was used only to find households that were cell-phone only (i.e., households that rely exclusively on cell phones because they do not have a landline to use for receiving calls). The samples from each frame were also disproportionately stratified by state to ensure adequate representation of each state, as well as higher numbers of completed surveys from states with larger populations. A total of 1,649,040 phone numbers were sampled through the RDD process, including 1,057,053 landline numbers and 591,987 cell phone numbers. Interviews were not conducted with adults living in group quarters. Group quarters (GQ) are places where people live or stay, in a group living arrangement, which is owned or managed by an entity or organization providing housing and/or services for the residents.

Survey Mode

The survey is conducted annually, but this is dependent on funding. The mode for this survey is computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). This survey is designed to be a stratified, random-digit dialed telephone survey of adults with interviews conducted in English and Spanish, on both landlines and cell phones. A respondent may answer up to 130 questions based on his/her tobacco use status. In the 2013-2014 administration year of the NATS survey, the Quality Assurance (QA) monitoring team included the project manager, data collection manager, and call center supervisors and QA assistants. Interviewer monitoring is primarily conducted by QA assistants. QA assistants monitor interviews by listening in on interviewers’ telephone lines and using the CATI system’s monitoring module to follow the course of the interview on a computer screen.

SGM-Related Survey Questions

Do you think of yourself as...?

[If R is female then Lesbian or] Gay	Straight, that is, not [If R is female then Lesbian or] gay	Bisexual
Something else	Respondent does not understand responses	(Don’t Know/Not Sure)
(Refused)	(Not ascertained)

By something else, do you mean that...

You are not straight, but identify with another label such as queer, trisexual, omnisexual or pansexual	You are transgender, transsexual or gender variant	You have not figured out your sexuality or are in the process of figuring it out
You do not think of yourself as having sexuality	You do not use labels to identify yourself	You made a mistake and did not mean to pick this answer
You mean something else	(Don’t Know/Not Sure)	(Inapplicable)
(Not ascertained)

You gave “Don’t know” as an answer. Is that because...

You don’t understand the words	You understand the words, but you have not figured out your sexuality or you are in the process of figuring it out	You mean something else
(Don’t Know/Not Sure)	(Refused)	(Inapplicable)
(Not ascertained)

Please tell me what you mean by “something else”?

Open ended

Question History: These are the only versions of the questions that have been used.

Do you consider yourself to be...?

Heterosexual, or straight	Gay or lesbian	Bisexual
Transgender	Other (specify)	Respondent does not understand responses
(Don’t know/Not sure)	(Refused)

What sex were you at birth? (90)

Male	Female
(Don’t know/Not sure)	(Refused)
(Not ascertained)

Do you currently consider yourself to be: (91)

Male	Female
(Don’t know/Not sure)	(Refused)
(Not ascertained)
Question History: This is the only version of the question that has been used.