!WARNING -- DATA USE RESTRICTIONS! READ CAREFULLY BEFORE USING The Public Health Service Act (Section 308 (d)) provides that the data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), may be used only for the purpose of health statistical reporting and analysis. Any effort to determine the identity of any reported case is prohibited by this law. NCHS does all it can to assure that the identity of data subjects cannot be disclosed. All direct identifiers, as well as any characteristics that might lead to identification, are omitted from the dataset. Any intentional identification or disclosure of a person or establishment violates the assurances of confidentiality given to the providers of the information. Therefore, users will: 1. Use the data in this dataset for statistical reporting and analysis only. 2. Make no use of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently and advise the Director, NCHS, of any such discovery. 3. Not link this dataset with individually identifiable data from other NCHS or non-NCHS datasets. BY USING THESE DATA, YOU SIGNIFY YOUR AGREEMENT TO COMPLY WITH THE ABOVE-STATED STATUTORILY-BASED AGREEMENTS. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This CD-ROM contains the 1970-1978 National Hospital Discharge Survey Multi-year Data File. Included are data files (separate newborn and non-newborn files) in ASCII format, data file documentation in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, and Excel spreadsheet files containing relative standard error (RSE) and population estimates to accompany the file documentation. An Excel spreadsheet file of approximate relative standard errors for 1970 through 1978 is included in the "/RSE file" directory on this CD. The file name is "RSE70_78.XLS". Excel spreadsheet files of US Census population estimates are provided in the "/pop files" directory on this CD. The file containing population estimates by geographic region and division is named REG70_78.XLS. The files of estimates by age, sex, and race are named YRxx.XLS, where "xx" can be replaced by the last two- digits of the year desired between 1970 and 1978 (e.g. 75). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of files contained on this CD: "nhds7078nb.txt" NHDS 1970-1978 ASCII dataset containing newborn records. "nhds7078nn.txt" NHDS 1970-1978 ASCII dataset containing non-newborn records. "nhds7078.pdf" NHDS 1970-1978 documentation in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. "/RSE file" Directory containing Excel spreadsheet file of RSE estimates. "/pop files" Directory containing Excel spreadsheet files of Census Bureau population estimates. *NOTE: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view the documentation file. The Reader software can be downloaded for free from: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html CAUTION - 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. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For questions concerning NHDS data, please contact: Jennifer R. Popovic, M.A. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics Division of Health Care Statistics Hospital Care Statistics Branch 6525 Belcrest Road, Room 956 Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 Phone: 301.458.4321 Fax: 301.458.4032 Email: jpopovic@cdc.gov For more information about the NHDS, visit our website: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/hdasd/nhds.htm For email discussions and dissemination of NHDS data, join our Hospital Discharge and Ambulatory Surgery Data listserv (HDAS-DATA). In the body of an email message (leaving the subject line blank), type: subscribe hdas-data Your Name Send this message to: listserv@cdc.gov For additional information on NCHS data products, please contact: National Center for Health Statistics Data Dissemination Branch 6525 Belcrest Road Hyattsville, Maryland 20782 Tel: (301) 458-INFO E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov Internet: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/