National Health Interview Survey, 2012 (ICPSR 36146)

Version Date: Aug 5, 2016

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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/ICPSR36146.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is conducted annually by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The main objective of the NHIS is to monitor the health of the United States population through the collection and analysis of data on a broad range of health topics.

The NHIS contains many similar questions every year. The repeated items are called "core questions." Beginning with a new NHIS design in 1997, these core questions were divided into three components -- Family, Sample Adult, and Sample Child.

The 2012 NHIS data release consists of six core data files, a paradata file, the three Disability Questions Tests files, a Functioning and Disability file, and two Complementary and Alternative Medicine files. Users may see the Survey Description document for more details.

The 2012 NHIS contains the core questions, as well as enhanced questions on health care access and utilization. Supplemental topics are covered in the following questionnaires: the Family questionnaire covers subjects of food security; the Sample Adult questionnaire covers subjects of immunization, complementary and alternative medicine, non-cigarette tobacco use, voice, speech, and language; and the Sample Child questionnaire covers subjects of mental health, mental health services, immunization, complementary and alternative medicine, balance, voice, speech, and language. Along with the 2012 NHIS core data files are the Disability Questions Tests 2012 files which contain person-level data collected via a field test of six disability questions. These supplemental questions appeared on the NHIS, at the end of the Family, Sample Adult, and Sample Child Cores.

The Disability Questions Tests 2012 files are released as three separate files. A fourth disability supplement was also fielded in 2012 as part of the Sample Adult Core and is called "Adult Functioning and Disability Level."

The Adult and Child Alternative Health Supplement files were intended to expand on knowledge of alternative medical services. Questions focus on how often various types of alternative therapies are used, the associated costs, and the reasons they are used.

Lastly, the Paradata Level file contains information about the survey and data collection processes; included are data on response rates, keystrokes, interview times, and number of contact attempts.

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health Interview Survey, 2012. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-08-05. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36146.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

Region (and pseudo-PSU)

Restrictions

In preparing the data files for this collection, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) 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)

2012

Date of Collection

2012

Data Collection Notes

  1. The User Guide contains information regarding the merging of files and the use of weight variables, along with information regarding changes to the 2012 NHIS.

  2. Please note that file names references in the User Guide do not align with the names of files released by ICPSR.

  3. For more information about the National Health Interview Survey, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site.

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Study Purpose

The main objective of the NHIS is to monitor the health of the United States population through the collection and analysis of data on a broad range of health topics.

Sample

The sample design follows a multistage area probability design that permits the representative sampling of households and noninstitutional group quarters (e.g., college dormitories). In order to increase the precision of estimates of the Black, Hispanic, and Asian populations, the current NHIS sample design oversamples Black persons, Hispanic persons, and Asian persons. In addition, the sample adult selection process provides that when Black, Hispanic, or Asian persons aged 65 years or older are present, they have an increased chance of being selected as the sample adult. For more information on sampling, please refer to the "NHIS Survey Description" section of the User Guide document.

Time Method

Cross-sectional

Universe

Civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual, Household, Family

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

The total household response rate was 77.6 percent. The final response rate for the family component was 77.6 percent. The final response rate for the sample child component was 69.7 percent. The final response rate for the sample adult component was 61.2 percent.

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Original Release Date

2016-08-05

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, 2012. ICPSR36146-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-08-05. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36146.v1

2016-08-05 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 variable labels and/or value labels.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

The data are not weighted. These data contain multiple weight variables for each part which must be used in any analysis. Users should refer to the User Guide for further information regarding the weights, their use, and their derivation.

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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.

NACDA logo

This study 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).