National Health Interview Survey, 1985 (ICPSR 8668)

Version Date: May 25, 2011

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

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08668.v2

Version V2

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Summary

The basic purpose of the National 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 the core survey, each in a separate data file. The variables in the Household File (Part 1) include type of living quarters, size of family, number of families in household, and geographic region. The variables in the Person File (Part 2) include sex, age, race, marital status, veteran status, education, income, industry and occupation codes, and limits on activity. These variables are found in the Condition, Doctor Visit, and Hospital Episode Files as well. The Person File also supplies data on height, weight, bed days, doctor visits, hospital stays, years at residence, and region variables. The Condition (Part 3), Doctor Visit (Part 4), and the Hospital Episode (Part 5) Files contain information on each reported condition, two-week doctor visit, or hospitalization (twelve-month recall), respectively. A sixth, seventh, and eighth file have been added along with the five core files. The Health Promotions and Disease Prevention Supplement is separated into three categories as follows: Child Safety/Infant Feeding (Part 6), Sample Person (Part 7), and Smoking (Part 8). These data files include questions on health and fitness awareness, general health habits, injury control, child safety and health, high blood pressure, stress, exercise, smoking, alcohol use, dental care, and occupational safety and health.

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 1985. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-05-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08668.v2

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

In preparing the data files for this collection, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has removed direct identifiers and characteristics that might lead to identification of data subjects. As an additional precaution, NCHS requires, under Section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242m), that data collected by NCHS not be used for any purpose other than statistical analysis and reporting. NCHS further requires that analysts not use the data to learn the identity of any persons or establishments and that the director of NCHS be notified if any identities are inadvertently discovered. ICPSR member institutions and other users ordering data from ICPSR are expected to adhere to these restrictions.

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

1985

Date of Collection

1985

Data Collection Notes

  1. The data contain amp (&), dash (-), and blank codes. In conjunction with the changes made to the core of NHIS in 1982, all 5 types of files have revised tape layouts. In general, identification items are at the beginning of each record followed by household and person information in the same location on each tape. Limitation of activity, acute conditions, disability days, and doctor visits should not be compared to data gathered before 1982. For the Health Promotions and Disease Prevention Supplement, one person was selected from each family interviewed and this sample person was a self-respondent to the supplement's questions.

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Sample

Starting in 1985, the NHIS multi-stage probability sampling design incorporates several major changes which facilitate linkages with other National Center for Health Statistics surveys, improve precision of estimates, and reduce costs. Starting with an all-area frame, a reduced number of 198 Primary Sampling Units (PSU) were selected, including two from each non-self representing stratum. Black persons were oversampled. Four independent representative samples were drawn which may be used in any combination.

Universe

Civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States and the District of Columbia from 1,900 geographically defined Primary Sampling Units (PSU).

Data Source

personal interviews

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

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Original Release Date

1987-10-12

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 1985. ICPSR08668-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-05-25. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08668.v2

2011-05-25 SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files have been added. Some corresponding documentation has been updated and pre-existing data files have been replaced. The Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Supplement has been broken into three separate data files.

2006-01-18 File CB8668.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

1987-10-12 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.
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Weight

Detailed information regarding the use of weights is located within the documentation.

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Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.