Health Interview Survey, 1978 (ICPSR 8044)

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

Summary: The purpose of the Health Interview Survey is to obtain information about the amount and distribution of illness, its effects in terms of disability and chronic impairments, and the kinds of health services people receive. There are five types of records in this core survey, each in a separate data file. The variables in the Household File (Part 1) in this collection include type of living quarters, size of family, and geographic region. The Person File (Part 2) variables include sex, age, race,... (more info)

Series: National Health Interview Survey Series

• This data is freely available.

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United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. Health Interview Survey, 1978. ICPSR08044-v3. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-01-05. doi:10.3886/ICPSR08044.v3

Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08044.v3

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Summary:   The purpose of the Health Interview Survey is to obtain information about the amount and distribution of illness, its effects in terms of disability and chronic impairments, and the kinds of health services people receive. There are five types of records in this core survey, each in a separate data file. The variables in the Household File (Part 1) in this collection include type of living quarters, size of family, and geographic region. The Person File (Part 2) variables include sex, age, race, marital status, veteran status, education, income, occupation, and limits on activity. The Condition File (Part 3) contains variables on the incidence of illness or injury within the past year. The Hospital Episode File (Part 4) contains variables on the incidence of hospitalizations and presence of chronic conditions. The Doctor Visit File (Part 5) includes variables regarding frequency of doctor visits, type of doctor seen, and reasons for each visit. A sixth and seventh file have been provided. The Family Medical Expenses File (Part 6) provides variables including sex, age, race, marital status, veteran status, education, income, industry and occupation codes, and limits on activity. Other variables include amounts paid for personal, family, and outside family dental bills, doctor bills, hospital bills, optical bills, prescription medicine, health insurance, and other medical expenses. Other questions include total personal, family, and outside family medical expenses, including and excluding health insurance, and the sex and race of the family head. The Immunization File (Part 7) includes basic demographic variables, hospital stay length, doctor visit periods, types of immunizations received, and when they were obtained.

Subject Terms:   chronic disabilities, chronic illnesses, disabilities, doctor visits, families, health, health care, health care services, health problems, hospitalization, household composition, illness

Geographic Coverage:   United States

Time Period:  

• 1978

Date of Collection:  

• 1978

Universe:   Civilian noninstitutional population of the United States from 1,900 geographically defined primary sampling units.

Data Types:   aggregate data, clinical data, survey data

Data Collection Notes:

These data files contain weights, which must be used in any analysis.

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

Sample:   Multistage probability design resulted in approximately 116,000 persons in approximately 40,000 households.

Weight:   These data contain multiple weight variables for each part. Users should refer to the User Guide for further information regarding the weights and their derivation. Additionally, users may need to weight the data prior to analysis.

Mode of Data Collection:   face-to-face interview

Data Source:

personal interviews

Extent of Processing:  ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

• Created online analysis version with question text.

Original ICPSR Release:  1984-05-03

Version History:

• 2011-01-05 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files have been added. Some corresponding documentation has been updated and a sixth and seventh data file have been added. Previous documentation has been combined and compiled together, as well as the questionnaire document which can now be found within the technical documentation.
• 2006-03-30 All files were removed from dataset 6 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-03-30 File QU8044.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.
• 2006-03-30 File FQ8044.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

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