Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study [United States] Restricted-Use Files (ICPSR 36231)

Version Date: Feb 1, 2019 View help for published

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse; United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.v17

Version V17 ()

  • V39 [2024-06-14]
  • V38 [2024-04-08] unpublished
  • V37 [2023-10-04] unpublished
  • V36 [2023-05-19] unpublished
  • V35 [2023-04-27] unpublished
  • V34 [2023-04-27] unpublished
  • V33 [2023-04-03] unpublished
  • V32 [2023-03-31] unpublished
  • V31 [2022-11-09] unpublished
  • V30 [2022-04-21] unpublished
  • V29 [2021-12-16] unpublished
  • V28 [2021-11-11] unpublished
  • V27 [2021-06-29] unpublished
  • V26 [2021-02-23] unpublished
  • V25 [2020-06-24] unpublished
  • V24 [2020-06-22] unpublished
  • V23 [2020-03-31] unpublished
  • V22 [2020-03-23] unpublished
  • V21 [2019-11-21] unpublished
  • V20 [2019-11-05] unpublished
  • V19 [2019-06-03] unpublished
  • V18 [2019-04-08] unpublished
  • V17 [2019-02-01] unpublished
  • V16 [2019-02-01] unpublished
  • V15 [2018-09-28] unpublished
  • V14 [2018-05-01] unpublished
  • V13 [2017-06-19] unpublished

You are currently viewing an older version of this data collection. A more recent version may be available by selecting ()

Additional information about this collection can be found in Version History.

2019-02-01 Updating to include public codebooks for Wave 1 Adult and Youth State Identifier data files and the Master linkage file and the public User Guide for the State Identifier Restricted-Use Files.

2019-02-01 Wave 1 Adult and Youth State Identifier data files were added to the collection. Data and documentation for the Master linkage file was updated.

2018-10-01 2018-09-28 Data and documentation for the Master linkage file was updated. The Nonresponse Bias Analysis Report is now included for Wave 3.

2018-05-01

Wave 3 Adult and Youth data files were added to the collection. Wave 1 and Wave 2 Adult and Youth data files were updated to improve the clarity and consistency of variable labels, especially in the Nicotine Dependence section.

A new variable was added to Wave 1 and Wave 2 Adult data - R0#_ND_DATA_ROUTE. A second variable was added to the Wave 2 Adult data - R02R_A_P12M_BLUNTONLY_GRILLO. An additional 18 derived variables in the Wave 2 Adult data were revised and replaced the original variables. The newly named variables possess the original name, but also contain "_REV" at the end of the variable name.

A skip error was identified in the Wave 2 Adult instrument, which resulted in some respondents being asked two questions when they should not have been. Therefore, the affected items, R02_AG0100CG and R02_AG0100FC, contain some extra data. Notes were added to the annotated instrument and codebook to describe the issue.

The User Guide and Questionnaires were also updated to improve understanding of the data files. A Nonresponse Bias Analysis report is now included for Wave 2.

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. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse, and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products. Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study [United States] Restricted-Use Files. ICPSR36231-v17. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-02-01. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.v17

2017-06-19 The Wave 1 and Wave 2 data files, for both Adults and Youth, were updated to correct minor errors along with the questionnaires to correct minor typos and clarify specifications.

2017-04-27 A minor revision was made to the both the English and Spanish versions of the Wave 1 Adult questionnaire. The User Guide was also updated. Two Excel crosswalks, one for Adults and one for Youth, were added to the available documentation to highlight the differences between the Wave 1 and Wave 2 files.

2017-04-03 An update was made to internal files to correct an issue with how missing values are displayed online through ICPSR's variables database.

2017-03-23 Minor revisions were made to the Missing Values Code table within the User Guide and both Codebooks for Wave 2.

2017-03-15 Data from Wave 2 of the study were added to the collection. The User Guide and Master Tobacco Brand and Product Code Guide were expanded to include information for Wave 2.

2017-01-31 The variable R01X_CB_REGION in both the Wave 1 Adult and Youth/Parent files was updated to correct an error in the value labels. The values for codes 2 and 3 had been inadvertently swapped. The data did not change; only the value labels for codes 2 and 3 have been corrected.

2016-11-28 An additional 40 derived variables were added to the end of the Wave 1 Youth / Parent file that are similar to those already in the Wave 1 Adult file. Information for individuals who withdrew from the study is denoted in the datasets by the special missing value -97777. Spanish versions of the annotated instruments are also now available.

2016-05-24 The study's title changed with the removal of the year range. The Informed Consent Document and Non-Response Bias Analysis Report were changed from being study level files to being a part of the Wave 1 (DS1001 and DS1002) specific documentation.

2016-04-22 An additional documentation file (Non-response_Report) was added to the collection.

2016-04-20 Updated the file names only for the two study level documentation files (Informed_Consent and Tobacco_Brand) so that each file was easily identified and distinguishable from the other. No change was made to the content in either file.

2016-04-18 Coding was updated for the sexual attraction variables. The questionnaires were revised to enhance the clarity of the ASK statements. The PDF codebooks now contain full question text from the questionnaires. Lastly, the PATH Study Master Tobacco Brand and Product Code Guide and an Informed Consent Document were also released.

2016-01-13 PDF codebooks were released without question text. The codebooks will be updated in the near future that includes question text.

2015-12-19 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:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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PATH Study (RUF)

The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study began originally surveying 45,971 adult and youth respondents. The PATH Study was launched in 2011 to inform the Food and Drug Administration's regulatory activities under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA). The PATH Study is a collaboration between the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The study sampled over 150,000 mailing addresses across the United States to create a national sample of tobacco users and non-users.

These 45,971 individuals constitute the first (baseline) wave of data collected by this longitudinal cohort study. Respondents are asked to complete an interview at each follow-up wave. Youth who turn 18 by the current wave of data collection are considered "aged-up adults" and are invited to complete the Adult Interview. Additionally, 7,207 "shadow youth" (youth ages 9 to 11 sampled at Wave 1) are considered "aged-up youth" upon turning 12 years old, when they are asked to join the study after parental consent. Please refer to the Restricted-Use Files User Guide that provides further details about these children designated as "shadow youth". At each subsequent wave of data collection, the parents of sampled youth are invited to complete a short Parent Interview about his or her child(ren).

Dataset 0001 (DS0001) contains the data from the Master Linkage file. This file contains 25 variables and 53,178 cases. The file provides a master list of every person's unique identification number and what type of respondent they were for each wave.

Dataset 1001 (DS1001) contains the data from the Wave 1 Adult Questionnaire. This data file contains 2,011 variables and 32,320 cases. Each of the cases represents a single, completed interview.

Dataset 1002 (DS1002) contains the data from the Wave 1 Youth (and Parent) Questionnaire. This file contains 1,430 variables and 13,651 cases.

Dataset 1401 (DS1401) contains the Wave 1 State Identifier data for Adults and has 5 variables and 32,320 cases. Dataset 1402 (DS1402) contains the Wave 1 State Identifier data for Youth (and Parents) and has 5 variables and 13,651 cases. The same 5 variables are in each State Identifier dataset, including PERSONID for linking the State Identifier to the questionnaire and biomarker data and 3 variables designating the state (state FIPS, state abbreviation, and full name of the state).

Dataset 2001 (DS2001) contains the data from the Wave 2 Adult Questionnaire. This data file contains 2,409 variables and 28,362 cases. Of these cases, 26,447 also completed a Wave 1 Adult Questionnaire. The other 1,915 cases are "aged-up adults" having previously completed a Wave 1 Youth Questionnaire.

Dataset 2002 (DS2002) contains the data from the Wave 2 Youth (and Parent) Questionnaire. This data file contains 1,588 variables and 12,172 cases. Of these cases, 10,081 also completed a Wave 1 Youth Questionnaire. The other 2,091 cases are "aged-up youth" having previously been sampled as "shadow youth."

Dataset 3001 (DS3001) contains the data from the Wave 3 Adult Questionnaire. This data file contains 2,338 variables and 28,148 cases. Of these cases, 26,241 are continuing adults having completed a prior Adult Questionnaire. The other 1,907 cases are "aged-up adults" having previously completed a Youth Questionnaire.

Dataset 3002 (DS3002) contains the data from the Wave 3 Youth (and Parent) Questionnaire. This data file contains 1,484 variables and 11,814 cases. Of these cases, 9,769 are continuing youth having completed a prior Youth Interview. The other 2,045 cases are "aged-up youth" having previously been sampled as "shadow youth."

The other four datasets (DS3101, DS3102, DS3201, and DS3202) are data files comprising the weight variables for Wave 3. The weight variables for Wave 1 and Wave 2 are included in the main data files. However, in Wave 3, the weight variables have been separated into individual data files for Adult and Youth Questionnaires. The "all-waves" weight files contain weights for those respondents who have completed an interview during all three waves of data collection. The "single-wave" weight files contain weights for all respondents in Wave 3 regardless of whether they completed an interview during Wave 2.

Each case in an Adult data file represents a single, completed interview. Each case in a Youth data file represents one youth and his or her parent's responses about that youth. Parents who provided permission for their child to participate in a Youth interview were asked to complete a brief interview about their child. In both waves of data collection, less than 0.5 percent of the parents did not complete an interview. Most questions are asked about to the child.

In Wave 1, about 88 percent of the "parent" respondents were the biological mother or father. When multiple youth from the same household were selected to be in the study, the parent(s) completed separate interviews about each youth. If one parent completed two or more interviews, that parent only answered questions about himself/herself once. Those questions were then skipped in the subsequent interview(s) for the other child(ren) and the responses duplicated in that child(ren)'s data file(s).

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse, and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products. Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study [United States] Restricted-Use Files. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-02-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.v17

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United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse, United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products

Census Region; Census Division

Users are reminded that these data are to be used solely for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregated information, and not for the investigation of specific individuals or organizations.

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement. Data are provided via ICPSR's Virtual Data Enclave (VDE). Apply for access to these data through the ICPSR VDE portal. Information and instructions are available within the data portal. For further assistance please reference the VDE Guide to learn about the application process, about using the VDE, and how to request disclosure review of VDE output.

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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2013 -- 2014 (Wave 1), 2014 -- 2015 (Wave 2), 2015 -- 2016 (Wave 3)
2013-09 -- 2014-12 (Wave 1), 2014-10 -- 2015-10 (Wave 2), 2015-10 -- 2016-10 (Wave 3)
  1. The PATH Study Data User Forum allows researchers using any PATH Study data files to communicate with each other to ask and answer questions. Announcements, data releases and updates, new publications, upcoming events, and other information for PATH Study data users will also be posted to the forum.
  2. Data are provided via ICPSR's Virtual Data Enclave (VDE) where researchers will work with data stored on secure ICPSR servers. Researchers will not possess actual physical copies of the data; however, they may request permission to access selected output outside the virtual environment after review by ICPSR. See the Access Notes to apply for access. Researchers are also encouraged to read the VDE Guide.
  3. The data files contain person-level (PERSONID) and household-level identification (R0#_HHID) variables allowing linkage of people within a file, between Adult and Youth/Parent files, and across waves of data collection. The values in these two variables are random and contain no direct or indirect personally identifiable information. Please review Appendix D in the Restricted-Use Files User Guide for information and programming code on linking files together. The files are sorted by the variable PERSONID.
  4. ICPSR attempted to duplicate all information contained in the questionnaires into the question text used in the codebooks. Some of the longer programming instructions were not incorporated into the question text. In these cases, the question text includes a note for the user to read the full programming instructions in the corresponding section of the questionnaire. Derived and imputed variables contain the algorithms used in the creation of these variables. Users are advised to refer to the Restricted-Use Files User Guide and annotated questionnaires when reviewing the codebooks.
  5. Some variables were withheld to limit the release of information that is a potential risk for disclosure. These variables are listed in Appendix B in the Restricted-Use Files User Guide.
  6. The Youth Interview and Parent Interview questionnaires were distinct and separate questionnaires used in data collection. However, for each wave, both instruments have been combined into a single document since the responses to these instruments are also combined into a single file.

  7. Both the Adult and Youth questionnaires in each wave include several questions about tobacco brands and products the respondent usually uses and most recently used. For each question, a list of response options was displayed on the computer screen for the respondent to select. For many major brands and products, the displayed list included both a text label and a thumbnail image of the brand logo or product package. The displayed list was different for each of the tobacco product types with the brands and products listed being those that were known to exist for the specific tobacco product type. Because these lists are long, they are not provided in a frequency table for each variable in the codebook or in the annotated instrument. For convenience, both the Adult and Youth/Parent codebooks contain an appendix with a frequency table of the top 20 responses for each variable. The PATH Study Master Tobacco Brand and Product Code Guide is available as an Excel workbook file [Documentation.xlsx (Tobacco_Brand)]. The spreadsheets in this Excel workbook file are protected and may not be edited. However, the last spreadsheet contains filters to narrow the complete list. This spreadsheet is the master file of all brand and product responses for these questions from all three waves, including any responses that were not in the list of options displayed to the respondent.
  8. In the Youth/Parent files for Wave 1 and Wave 2 (DS1002 and DS2002), the last section of the questionnaire contains demographic and health history questions. A few of the questions were asked of all youth. However, most questions were only asked of emancipated youth. The responses to these questions for non-emancipated youth were coded as "Inapplicable". The questionnaire and codebook note which variables were asked only of emancipated youth. Conversely, in the Parent Interview section the same questions were asked of parents of all sampled youth except for the emancipated youth. In this section the cases for emancipated youth were coded as "Inapplicable". There are a small number of emancipated youth in Wave 3, but there are no individual questions asked exclusively of emancipated youth.

  9. In both the Adult and Youth/Parent data files, several groups of variables contain the word "RANDOM" in both the variable name and label. This indicates computerized randomization of the question order. These "RANDOM" variables detail the order in which the questions were asked of a particular respondent.

  10. The Wave 1 data files for both Adults and Youth contain a section about tobacco advertising. There are 20 variable triplets contained in this section. The computer randomly selected 20 advertisements and then asked the respondents whether they had seen the ad and whether they liked the ad. The Image ID variable (_AD) identifies the advertisement that was displayed to the respondent to characterize the ad, e.g., the tobacco product and brand. However, vendors did not grant permission to publicly release the actual .jpg and .bmp files containing the images seen by respondents.

  11. Derived and imputed demographic variables (age, sex, Hispanic ethnicity, and race) are included near the end of each data file. The Adult file also contains education. An accompanying imputation flag variable is also included. These variables are distinguished by the variable name starting with "R0#R" and contain the word "DERIVED" or "IMPUTED" in the variable label. Imputed variables are only available on the Wave 1 data files.

  12. Within the "Derived and Imputed Variables" section of the codebooks of the Adult and Youth/Parent files for Wave 1 only are two geographic variables - Census Region and Census Division. There are additional variables to designate urban areas and Census Block characteristics.

  13. All Adult and Youth/Parent data files contain additional derived variables. These variables can be distinguished by the variable name starting with "R0#R" and contain the word "DERIVED" in the variable label. There are several variables for each tobacco category to identify certain classes of current and former tobacco users.

  14. In accordance with the study's informed consent, information is suppressed about individuals who withdrew from the PATH Study. Their information was recoded to a special missing value, designated as -97777.

  15. The current release contains the restricted-use versions of Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 data files. Wave 4 data files are tentatively planned to be released in 2019.

  16. The documentation file named Documentation.pdf (Informed_Consent) includes the six consent forms provided to and signed by the respondents for the various types of interviews conducted and biological samples collected. Participants provide consent at their initial interview and biological sample collection; consents remain in effect for all subsequent waves. Aged-up adults who previously responded to the Youth interview at one wave need to re-consent as an adult at the time of the subsequent wave.
  17. The Nonresponse Bias Analysis Report for Wave 1 details the response rates and the potential for bias from nonresponse. There is also a Nonresponse Bias Analysis Report for Wave 2 and a Nonresponse Bias Analysis Report for Wave 3.
  18. The Informed Consent Document and Nonresponse Bias Analysis Reports are specific to each wave they are listed for. They are listed for both the Adult File and the Youth/Parent File, but they are the same files.

  19. The questionnaires in this collection are updated versions of the fielded questionnaires that were annotated for analytic purposes. Spanish versions are also available.

  20. The PATH Study's documentation is available for your use and may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse or FDA's Center for Tobacco Products. Citation of the source is appreciated.

  21. Additional background information including answers to frequently asked questions for study participants and researchers can be found in the Researchers section of the PATH Study series page.

  22. The Restricted-Use Files User Guide provides an overview of the entire PATH Study. The guide covers topics such as sample design, data collection, weighting, response rates, and programming syntax to run common statistics and link the files together. Researchers should feel free to use the information in the User Guide for their publication and the guide should be cited as follows:

    • United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse, and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products. Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study [United States] Restricted-Use Files, User Guide. ICPSR36231-v14 Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2018-05-01. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.userguide
  23. The data for the PATH Study was collected and prepared by Westat. The contract number under which they performed their work is HHSN271201100027C.

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The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study is a longitudinal cohort study on tobacco use behavior, attitudes and beliefs, and tobacco-related health outcomes among approximately 46,000 adults and youth in the United States. The study's primary objectives are to:

  • Objective 1: Identify and explain between-person differences and within-person changes in tobacco-use patterns, including the rate and length of use by specific product type and brand, product/brand switching over time, uptake of new products, and dual- and poly-use of tobacco products (i.e., use of multiple products within the same time period and switching between multiple products).
  • Objective 2: Identify between-person differences and within-person changes in risk perceptions regarding harmful and potentially harmful constituents, new and emerging tobacco products, filters and other design features of tobacco products, packaging, and labeling; and identify other factors that may affect use, such as social influences and individual preferences.
  • Objective 3: Characterize the natural history of tobacco dependence, cessation, and relapse, including readiness and self-efficacy to quit, motivations for quitting, the number and length of quit attempts, and the length of abstinence related to various tobacco products.
  • Objective 4: Update the comprehensive baseline and subsequent waves of data on tobacco-use behaviors and related health conditions, including markers of exposure and tobacco-related disease processes identified from the collection and analysis of biospecimens, to assess between-person differences and within-person changes over time in health conditions potentially related to tobacco use, particularly with use of new and different tobacco products, including modified-risk tobacco products.
  • Objective 5: Assess associations between TCA-specific actions and tobacco-product use, risk perceptions and attitudes, use patterns, cessation outcomes, and tobacco-related intermediate endpoints (e.g., biomarkers of exposure and biomarkers related to disease). Analyses will attempt to account for other potential factors, such as demographics, local tobacco-control policies, and social, familial, and economic factors, that may influence the observed patterns.
  • Objective 6: Assess between-person differences and within-person changes over time in attitudes, behaviors, exposure to tobacco products, and related biomarkers among and within population sub-groups identified by such characteristics as race-ethnicity, gender, and/or age, or by risk factors, such as pregnancy or co-occurring substance use or mental health disorders.
  • Objective 7: To the extent to which sample sizes are sufficient, assess and compare samples of former and never users of tobacco products for between-person differences and within-person changes in relapse and uptake, risk perceptions, and indicators of tobacco exposure and disease processes.
  • Objective 8: Use data from the PATH Study's baseline and follow-up waves on tobacco-use behaviors, attitudes, and related health conditions, including potential markers of exposure and related disease processes identified from the analysis of biospecimens, to screen and subsample respondents for participation in formative and/or nested studies conducted during and after the PATH Study's waves of data and biospecimen collection.

The study sampled over 150,000 mailing addresses which, using a four-staged stratified sampling design, yielded a sample of 45,971 respondents (32,320 adults / 13,651 youth) who completed a Wave 1 interview. Tobacco users and non-users who were at least 9 years old living in a civilian, non-institutionalized setting were considered for participation during Wave 1. Youth who turn 18 by the next wave of data collection are considered "aged-up adults" and are invited to complete the Adult Interview. Additionally, 7,207 "shadow youth" (youth ages 9 to 11 sampled at Wave 1) are considered "aged-up youth" upon turning 12 years old when they are asked to join the study.

The Adult files contain a single record for every adult participant. The Youth/Parent files contain a single record of every youth who participated in a given wave. Parents who provided permission for their child to complete a Youth Interview were asked to complete a brief Parent Interview that contained questions about parental supervision, school performance, and tobacco use by youth. The Parent Interview is primarily an interview about the child(ren), not the parent. In all three waves, almost all youth had a parent or guardian complete the Parent Interview (over 99.5 percent). When multiple youth from the same household were selected to be in the study, the parent(s) completed separate interviews about each youth. If one parent completed multiple interviews, then questions asked about him or her were only asked once and skipped in the other interview(s). The parent's responses were then duplicated for the other child or children.

A $2 incentive was mailed to all addresses sampled at Wave 1 prior to screening. For all three waves, adult respondents were paid $35 for their participation. Youth were paid $25 to complete the Youth Interview, and their parents were given $10 for each Parent Interview.

A four-stage stratified area probability sample design was used in the PATH Study, with a two-phase design for sampling adults at the final stage. At the first stage, a stratified sample of geographical primary sampling units (PSUs) was selected, in which a PSU is a county or group of counties. For the second stage, within each selected PSU, smaller geographical segments were formed and then a sample of these segments was drawn. At the third stage, the sampling frame consisted of the residential addresses located in these segments. The fourth stage selected adults and youth from the sampled households identified at these addresses, with varying sampling rates for adults by age, race, and tobacco use status. Adults were sampled in two phases - Phase 1 sampling used information provided in the household screener and Phase 2 sampling used information provided by the adult in the Phase 2 screener at the beginning of the Adult instrument. Please consult the Restricted-Use Files User Guide for additional details about the sampling.

Longitudinal: Panel

Users and non-users of tobacco products in the civilian, non-institutionalized household population of the United States aged 9 and older at the time of Wave 1.

individual

In all three waves, adults and youth were asked about the following types of tobacco products:

  • Cigarettes
  • E-cigarettes/Electronic nicotine products
  • Cigars (traditional, cigarillos, filtered)
  • Pipe tobacco
  • Hookah
  • Smokeless tobacco (snus pouches and other forms of smokeless tobacco)
  • Dissolvable tobacco
  • Bidis and kreteks (youth only)

Although each section on tobacco products has some unique questions, most questions fit into one of the following categories:

  • Ever use
  • Recency of use
  • Frequency of use
  • Amount of use
  • Brands used
  • Purchase details
  • Use of flavored products
  • Harm and addictiveness
  • Reasons for use

Additional topics, in at least one wave, include:

  • Poly use
  • Nicotine dependence
  • Packaging and health warnings
  • Risk and harm perceptions
  • Secondhand smoke exposure
  • Marketing and advertising
  • Media use
  • Demographics
  • Health
  • Psychosocial and mental health
  • Substance use
  • Cessation
  • Peer and family influences

Most questions asked in the questionnaires are categorical. Other questions ask, for example, the age at which something occurred or the person's body measurements. Responses to these questions are numerical.

The response rates for the PATH Study are shown below. The Wave 1 interview rates are conditional on completion of the Wave 1 screener. The response rates for Waves 2 and 3 are conditional on Wave 1 participation.

  • Household screener: 54.0 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 1 Adult Interview: 74.0 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 1 Youth Interview: 78.4 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 2 Adult Interview: 83.2 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 2 Youth Interview: 87.3 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 3 Adult Interview: 78.4 percent (weighted)
  • Wave 3 Youth Interview: 83.3 percent (weighted)

Please consult the Restricted-Use Files User Guide for further information regarding the response rates of data collection.

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2015-12-19

2019-02-01 Updating to include public codebooks for Wave 1 Adult and Youth State Identifier data files and the Master linkage file and the public User Guide for the State Identifier Restricted-Use Files.

2019-02-01 Wave 1 Adult and Youth State Identifier data files were added to the collection. Data and documentation for the Master linkage file was updated.

2018-10-01 2018-09-28 Data and documentation for the Master linkage file was updated. The Nonresponse Bias Analysis Report is now included for Wave 3.

2018-05-01

Wave 3 Adult and Youth data files were added to the collection. Wave 1 and Wave 2 Adult and Youth data files were updated to improve the clarity and consistency of variable labels, especially in the Nicotine Dependence section.

A new variable was added to Wave 1 and Wave 2 Adult data - R0#_ND_DATA_ROUTE. A second variable was added to the Wave 2 Adult data - R02R_A_P12M_BLUNTONLY_GRILLO. An additional 18 derived variables in the Wave 2 Adult data were revised and replaced the original variables. The newly named variables possess the original name, but also contain "_REV" at the end of the variable name.

A skip error was identified in the Wave 2 Adult instrument, which resulted in some respondents being asked two questions when they should not have been. Therefore, the affected items, R02_AG0100CG and R02_AG0100FC, contain some extra data. Notes were added to the annotated instrument and codebook to describe the issue.

The User Guide and Questionnaires were also updated to improve understanding of the data files. A Nonresponse Bias Analysis report is now included for Wave 2.

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. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse, and United States Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration. Center for Tobacco Products. Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study [United States] Restricted-Use Files. ICPSR36231-v17. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-02-01. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR36231.v17

2017-06-19 The Wave 1 and Wave 2 data files, for both Adults and Youth, were updated to correct minor errors along with the questionnaires to correct minor typos and clarify specifications.

2017-04-27 A minor revision was made to the both the English and Spanish versions of the Wave 1 Adult questionnaire. The User Guide was also updated. Two Excel crosswalks, one for Adults and one for Youth, were added to the available documentation to highlight the differences between the Wave 1 and Wave 2 files.

2017-04-03 An update was made to internal files to correct an issue with how missing values are displayed online through ICPSR's variables database.

2017-03-23 Minor revisions were made to the Missing Values Code table within the User Guide and both Codebooks for Wave 2.

2017-03-15 Data from Wave 2 of the study were added to the collection. The User Guide and Master Tobacco Brand and Product Code Guide were expanded to include information for Wave 2.

2017-01-31 The variable R01X_CB_REGION in both the Wave 1 Adult and Youth/Parent files was updated to correct an error in the value labels. The values for codes 2 and 3 had been inadvertently swapped. The data did not change; only the value labels for codes 2 and 3 have been corrected.

2016-11-28 An additional 40 derived variables were added to the end of the Wave 1 Youth / Parent file that are similar to those already in the Wave 1 Adult file. Information for individuals who withdrew from the study is denoted in the datasets by the special missing value -97777. Spanish versions of the annotated instruments are also now available.

2016-05-24 The study's title changed with the removal of the year range. The Informed Consent Document and Non-Response Bias Analysis Report were changed from being study level files to being a part of the Wave 1 (DS1001 and DS1002) specific documentation.

2016-04-22 An additional documentation file (Non-response_Report) was added to the collection.

2016-04-20 Updated the file names only for the two study level documentation files (Informed_Consent and Tobacco_Brand) so that each file was easily identified and distinguishable from the other. No change was made to the content in either file.

2016-04-18 Coding was updated for the sexual attraction variables. The questionnaires were revised to enhance the clarity of the ASK statements. The PDF codebooks now contain full question text from the questionnaires. Lastly, the PATH Study Master Tobacco Brand and Product Code Guide and an Informed Consent Document were also released.

2016-01-13 PDF codebooks were released without question text. The codebooks will be updated in the near future that includes question text.

2015-12-19 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:

  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Each data file for Wave 1 and Wave 2 contains weights for use in analyses of the data from the complex PATH Study sample design. The weights for Wave 3 have been separated into two files, one for the all-waves weights and one for the single-wave weights. The all-waves weights file is for respondents who have participated in all three waves of data collection. The single-wave weights file is for all respondents in Wave 3 regardless of their participation in Wave 2.

The final full-sample person-level weight for Waves 1 and 2 on the Adult file is R0#_A_PWGT, and the final full-sample person-level weight for Waves 1 and 2 on the Youth / Parent file is R0#_Y_PWGT. The Wave 3 single-wave weight is named R03_A_SWGT for adults and R03_Y_SWGT for youth. The Wave 3 all-waves weight is named R03_A_AWGT for adults and R03_Y_AWGT for youth. For each weight mentioned above, there are also 100 replicate weights and design variables (VARPSU and VARSTRAT) for use in variance estimation. Detailed information on how these variables were created, and how and why they should be used is provided in the Restricted-Use Files User Guide.

Note that the weighting procedures adjust for oversampling of specified population groups and nonresponse. ICPSR strongly recommends that researchers read and understand this section before analyzing the data to ensure correct use of these variables.

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