National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2006 (ICPSR 28403)

Principal Investigator(s): United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics

Summary: The National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS) supply data on ambulatory medical care provided in physicians' offices. The 2006 survey contains information from 29,392 patient visits to 1,455 physicians' offices. Data are available on the patient's smoking habits, reason for the visit, expected source of payment, the physician's diagnosis, and the kinds of diagnostic and therapeutic services rendered. Other variables cover drugs/medications ordered, administered, or pro... (more info)

Series: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Series

• This data is freely available.

• This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA), the aging program within ICPSR. NACDA is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Heath (NIH).

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United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2006. ICPSR28403-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-10-12. doi:10.3886/ICPSR28403.v2

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR28403.v2

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This survey was funded by:

• United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Cancer Institute

Summary:   The National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS) supply data on ambulatory medical care provided in physicians' offices. The 2006 survey contains information from 29,392 patient visits to 1,455 physicians' offices. Data are available on the patient's smoking habits, reason for the visit, expected source of payment, the physician's diagnosis, and the kinds of diagnostic and therapeutic services rendered. Other variables cover drugs/medications ordered, administered, or provided during office visits, with information on medication code, generic name and code, brand name, entry status, prescription status, federal controlled substance status, composition status, and related ingredient codes. Information is also included on the physician's specialization and geographic location. Demographic information on patients, such as age, sex, race, and ethnicity, was also collected. In addition, the 2006 survey contains two new sampling strata which are from 104 Community Health Centers (CHCs) and 200 oncologists.

Subject Terms:   ambulatory care, doctor visits, health care services, medical care, medical evaluation, medical records, medications, patient care, patients, physicians, prescription drugs, smoking, treatment

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 2006

Date of Collection:  

• 2006

Universe:   Office visits made within the United States by patients of nonfederally-employed physicians who were primarily involved in office-based patient care activities, but not engaged in the specialties of radiology, pathology, or anesthesiology.

Data Types:   administrative records data

Data Collection Notes:

Per agreement with the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), ICPSR distributes the data file and text of the technical documentation for this collection as prepared by NCHS.

A portion of NAMCS 2006, the sampling stratum of 200 oncologists, was made possible through funding from the National Cancer Institute.

The Stata dataset (.dta file) made available by ICPSR does not contain all of the value labels found within the .do file supplied by ICPSR. Specifically, the value labels that are composed primarily of ICD-9 codes have been omitted from the .dta file. Those data users interested in applying the value labels to the dataset will be able to edit the Stata setup files, which include the aforementioned labels, provided by ICPSR.

Sample:   The 2006 NAMCS utilized a multistage probability sample design. Primary sampling units (PSUs) were selected in the first stage, physician practices within PSUs in the second stage, and patient visits to selected physicians in the third stage.

Weight:   Microdata file users should be fully aware of the importance of the "patient visit weight" (PATWT) and how it must be used. Information about the patient visit weight is presented in the codebook. If more information is needed, the staff of the Ambulatory Care Statistics Branch can be consulted by calling (301) 458-4600 during regular working hours. Prior to this data release, researchers could not make physician-level estimates with publicly available NAMCS data. For 2006, a new "physician weight" (PHYSWT) variable was added to the first record for each individual physician in the dataset.

Data Source:

medical records

Original ICPSR Release:  2010-06-28

Version History:

• 2011-10-12 Changes to the CPSUM variable have been made within the dataset.

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