Attach CDC variable descriptions as Hmisc-style labels

Looks up the plain-language CDC description for each column in a NHANES data frame and stores it as an "label" attribute on the column. Hmisc reads these attributes automatically in describe, Hmisc::summary(), Hmisc::html(), and other label-aware functions, so labelling once makes descriptions available everywhere.

Usage

NH_label(x, descriptions = NULL)

Arguments

x

A data frame of NHANES data, typically from nhanes_download_analyte.

descriptions

Optional lookup for variable descriptions. May be:

• NULL (default): descriptions are loaded from the locally cached variable catalog. Run any nhanes_search_variables call first to populate the cache.

• A data.frame with columns variable_name and variable_desc, such as the output of nhanes_search_variables.

• A named character vector mapping variable names to descriptions.

Value

x with "label" attributes set on each column that could be matched to a CDC description. Columns with no catalog match are returned unchanged.

See also

NH_describe for a one-step labelled describe; nhanes_search_variables to browse the variable catalog; label for the Hmisc label convention.

Examples

# \donttest{
tc <- nhanes_download_analyte("total cholesterol", "2015-2016")
#> Found 6 unique variables matching "total cholesterol".
#> Warning: Both "2017-2018" and "2017-2020" are present. The 2017-2018 participants are
#> included in the 2017-2020 pandemic-adjusted file -- use one or the other in
#> pooled analyses to avoid double-counting.
#> Loading cached TCHOL_I for 2015-2016
tc <- NH_label(tc)

# CDC descriptions now appear in all Hmisc label-aware output
invisible(Hmisc::describe(tc))
# }