1966 NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY 06/05/2008 PUBLIC USE DATA RELEASE * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 data files. 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 these data files 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 (301-458-4000). 3. Not link these data files with individually identifiable data from other NCHS or non-NCHS data files. By using these data, you signify your agreement to comply with the above-stated statutorily based requirements. INTRODUCTION The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is conducted annually by the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The NHIS administers face-to-face interviews in a nationally representative sample of households. Each week a probability sample of the civilian non- institutionalized population of the United States is interviewed by personnel of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Information is obtained about the health and other characteristics of each member of the household. The NHIS includes a basic questionnaire plus one or more additional questionnaires. More information on the survey in general and the 1966 version, in particular, is found in the Current Estimates Series report prepared for 1966: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_037.pdf NOTES TO USERS Users are advised to subscribe to the NHIS Listserv to receive notice of any corrections/updates. For information about joining the Listserv, see the CONTACT INFORMATION section at the bottom of this document. 1966 NHIS FILES AND DOCUMENTATION The 1966 NHIS files and related documentation have not been previously distributed. The files listed below comprise the 1966 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) public use data release as found on the Internet. A copy of this file (README.TXT) is located in ASCII format at the following ftp location: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/1966/ 1966 NHIS DATA FILES NHIS data files for the 1963-1967 period are fiscal year files. The 1966 NHIS files cover the period July 1, 1965 to June 30, 1966. From 1967 to 1996, five NHIS files are referred to as "core" files because they were administered each year (through 1996). The five core files are Household, Person, Condition, Doctor Visit, and Hospital. Fiscal year 1966 marked the beginning of doctor visit data collection; the data were collected for the second half of the fiscal year (January-June 1966). Unfortunately, the 1966 Doctor Visit file has been lost and is no longer available. This release consists of the other four core files, and one supplement file, for a total of five files. For ease of transmission, each of the 1966 NHIS data files is available both in a compressed format (.ZIP file extension) and a (Microsoft Windows only) self-extracting compressed format (.EXE file extension). To load and expand a compressed file into an ASCII file, perform the following steps: Download a compressed file onto your hard drive into an appropriate directory (folder). For example: Copy the data file PERSON.ZIP or PERSON.EXE into a directory called NHIS1966. To do this, create a directory in an area of your hard drive where you have read/write privilege called NHIS1966 (e.g., C:\NHIS1966 for Microsoft Windows, /home//NHIS1966 for UNIX-like systems). Then, using your browser, go to the FTP site containing the 1966 NHIS data files (see address at end of this section). Right click on the PERSON.ZIP or PERSON.EXE file. Depending on your browser, select Save Link As... or Save Target As... and specify the appropriate location for saving the file. Use the system's graphical file system browser (e.g., Microsoft Windows Explorer) to navigate to the file location. All contemporary operating systems have utilities to extract data from .ZIP files. For example, right clicking on PERSON.ZIP on a Microsoft Windows system will open a dialog box that includes the choice "Extract All...". A self-extracting .EXE file can be activated on a Microsoft Windows system by double-clicking on the file. The ASCII file PERSON.DAT will be generated with carriage return/line feed characters at the end of each record which can then be used for processing by PC statistical software packages which utilize ASCII formatted input, or transferred to another computer for processing. NOTE: The 1966 NHIS files are large in size. Please use caution and check your disk drive capacity before extracting. 1966 NHIS DATA FILES RECORD NHIS FILE TYPE FILE NAME LENGTH # RECS ------------------- ------------ ------ ------- PERSON PERSON.DAT 156 139,195 CONDITION CONDITION.DAT 156 163,029 HOSPITAL HOSPITAL.DAT 156 18,748 HOUSEHOLD HOUSEHOLD.DAT 156 45,305 MEDICAL CARE COSTS MEDCARE.DAT 156 69,054 Note: The above data files are the unzipped files in ASCII format. The 1966 NHIS data files are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Datasets/NHIS/1966 Previously, a 1966 file "SMOKINGX.DAT" was created by NCHS and provided to some researchers. SMOKINGX.DAT is no longer supported or available - PERSON.DAT in this release replaces SMOKINGX.DAT. 1966 NHIS FILE LAYOUTS (CODEBOOKS) There is a file layout (also called codebook or data dictionary) for each data file. The file layouts are in PDF format and can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat software. The Adobe Acrobat Reader software can be downloaded from the Adobe Acrobat Web site at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html File File Name Description of Component Format PERSON.PDF Person file record layout Adobe PDF CONDITION.PDF Condition file record layout Adobe PDF HOSPITAL.PDF Hospital file record layout Adobe PDF HOUSEHOLD.PDF Household file record layout Adobe PDF MEDCARE.PDF Medical Care Costs file record layout Adobe PDF OTHER 1966 NHIS DOCUMENTATION NHIS1966_NOTES.PDF Adobe PDF General notes about this release 1966_FISCAL_CE_TABLES_TABULATION_EXAMPLES.PDF Adobe PDF Guidance for re-creating selected estimates in the fiscal year 1966 NHIS Current Estimates report NHIS_DIAGNOSTIC_RECODE_x.PDF, x=1 to 3 Adobe PDF Diagnostic recodes 1, 2, 3 (Condition and/or Hospital files) NHIS_OPERATION_RECODES.PDF Adobe PDF Operation recodes in Hospital file The following document applies to the 1966-1968 NHIS and is available in: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/1967 DIAGRECODE2SUMMARY.PDF Adobe PDF Diagnostic recode 2 summary (Condition file) The following documents apply to the 1966-1968 NHIS and are available in: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/1968 NHIS_DIAGNOSTIC_RECODE_4.PDF Adobe PDF Diagnostic recode 4 (Hospital file) 68CLASSOFACCIDENTRECODE.PDF Adobe PDF Class of accident recode (Condition, Hospital files) 68OCCUPATIONRECODES.PDF Adobe PDF Occupation recodes 68INDUSTRYRECODES.PDF Adobe PDF Industry recodes The 1966 NHIS data file layout and other documentation files, except as noted above, are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/1966 1966 NHIS SAS INPUT STATEMENTS Sample SAS programs containing input statements have been provided for each data file. By using the ASCII data files (.DAT files) as input to these programs, SAS data files can be created. The SAS input statement programs are stored in ASCII format. File File Name Description of Component Format PERSON.SAS Person file SAS program ASCII CONDITION.SAS Condition file SAS program ASCII HOSPITAL.SAS Hospital file SAS program ASCII HOUSEHOLD.SAS Household file SAS program ASCII MEDCARE.SAS Medical Care Costs file SAS program ASCII The 1966 NHIS sample SAS input statement programs are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Program_Code/NHIS/1966 1966 NHIS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND FLASHCARDS The 1966 Current Estimates report includes the fiscal year 1966 questionnaire in an appendix: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_037.pdf (appendix III) MISCELLANEOUS All information collected in the survey is from reports by responsible family members residing in the household. When possible, all adult family members participate in the interview. However, proxy responses are accepted for family members who are not at home and are required for all children and for family members who are physically or mentally incapable of responding for themselves. Although a considerable effort is made to ensure accurate reporting, the information from both proxy respondents and self-respondents may be inaccurate because the respondent is unaware of relevant information, has forgotten it, does not wish to reveal it to an interviewer, or does not understand the intended meaning of a question. Data from the core in 1966 were collected for 52 weeks. Data from the special health topic (Medical Care Cost supplement) were collected for 26 weeks (January-June 1966). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * CONTACT INFORMATION Updates about new data releases, publications, or errors will be sent to members of the NHIS Listserv. To join, visit the CDC website at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/nhis/nhislist.htm For additional information on the NHIS, visit the website at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm If you have questions or comments on any aspect of the NHIS, please contact us: E-mail : nhislist@cdc.gov Call : 301-458-4901 FAX : 301-458-4035 Mail : DHHS:PHS:CDC:NCHS:DHIS 3311 Toledo RD Room 2217 Hyattsville MD 20782 Home Page: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm For additional information on NCHS data products, contact the: Data Dissemination Branch, NCHS 3311 Toledo Road Hyattsville, MD 20782 Tel: 1-301-458-4636 or 1-866-441-NCHS E-mail: nchsquery@cdc.gov Internet: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICITY This material has been cleared for public distribution by CDC/ATSDR and will be authentic if obtained directly from ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/. CDC/ATSDR takes all effort to assure the authenticity of electronically distributed documents. However, in all instances where the electronic and official agency record differ, the authenticity of the official agency record is controlling. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *