National Hospital Discharge Survey, 1979-2006: Multi-Year Public Use File (ICPSR 24281)

Version Date: Jan 28, 2009

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

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24281.v1

Version V1

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Summary

The National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS) collects medical and demographic information annually from a sample of hospital discharge records. Variables include patients' demographic characteristics (sex, age, race, marital status), dates of admission and discharge, source and type of admission, status at discharge, final diagnoses, surgical and nonsurgical procedures, dates of surgeries, and sources of payment. Information on hospital characteristics such as bed size, ownership, and region of the country is also included. This collection includes data for non-newborns for 1979-1989 (Dataset 1), non-newborns for 1990-2006 (Dataset 2) and newborns for 1979-2006 (Dataset 3). The medical information is coded using the INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES, 9TH REVISION, CLINICAL MODIFICATION (ICD-9-CM). In addition, there are several Excel files that contain information needed to calculate relative standard errors (RSEs) and to compute utilization rates based on Census population estimates (POPs).

Citation

United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Discharge Survey, 1979-2006: Multi-Year Public Use File. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-01-28. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24281.v1

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Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Restrictions

In preparing the data file 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)

1979 -- 2006

Date of Collection

2008

Data Collection Notes

  1. Per agreement with NCHS, ICPSR distributes the data files and technical documentation in this collection in their original form as prepared by NCHS.

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Sample

Detailed information regarding sampling can be found in the documentation.

Universe

Patient discharges from nonfederal short-stay hospitals located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Data Source

hospital records

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

2009-01-28

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. National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Discharge Survey, 1979-2006: Multi-Year Public Use File. ICPSR24281-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-01-28. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24281.v1

2009-01-28 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.
  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

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Weight

Because the NHDS is a sample survey, the application of weights to the sample data is necessary in order to produce national estimates of inpatient hospital utilization.

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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.

  • ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.

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).

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