1971 NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY 08/24/2006 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 1971 version, in particular, is found in the Current Estimates Series report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_079.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. 1971 NHIS FILES AND DOCUMENTATION The 1971 NHIS files and related documentation have been previously distributed via various formats -- magnetic tape, ASCII CDs, etc. The files listed below comprise the 1971 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/1971/ 1971 NHIS DATA FILES Five 1971 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. The 1971 NHIS data have been divided into six data files, consisting of the five core files and one supplemental file. For ease of transmission, each of the 1971 NHIS data files has been converted into a self-extracting compressed format. 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 HOUSEHLD.EXE into a directory called NHIS1971. To do this, create a directory on your C: drive called NHIS1971. Then, using your browser, go to the FTP site containing the 1971 NHIS data files (see address at end of this section). Right click on the HOUSEHLD.EXE file. Depending on your browser, select Save Link As... or Save Target As... Type c:\nhis1971\HOUSEHLD.EXE in the box labeled File Name and hit Enter. To then extract HOUSEHLD.EXE into the ASCII file HOUSEHLD.DAT, go to the directory NHIS1971 and do the following: - From DOS - in the c:\nhis1971 directory, type HOUSEHLD and hit Enter - From Windows - Double-click on HOUSEHLD.EXE or Click the Start Button, Click Run, enter c:\nhis1971\HOUSEHLD.EXE and hit Enter. The ASCII file HOUSEHLD.DAT will be generated 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 1971 NHIS files are large in size. Please use caution and check your disk drive capacity before extracting. 1971 NHIS DATA FILES RECORD NHIS FILE TYPE FILE NAME LENGTH # RECS ------------------- ------------ ------ ------- HOUSEHOLD HOUSEHLD.DAT 486 45,422 PERSON PERSONSX.DAT 486 134,502 CONDITION CONDITON.DAT 486 68,441 HOSPITAL HOSPITAL.DAT 486 17,714 DOCTOR VISIT DRVISITX.DAT 486 25,393 PERSON SUPPLEMENT PERSSUPP.DAT 536 134,502 Note: The above data files are the unzipped files in ASCII format. The 1971 NHIS data files are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Datasets/NHIS/1971 1971 NHIS FILE LAYOUTS (CODEBOOKS) There is a file layout (also called codebook or data dictionary) for with 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 NHISCORE.PDF* Core files layout Adobe PDF PERSSUPP.PDF Person Supplement file layout Adobe PDF *NHISCORE.PDF contains the file layouts for the following five core files: Household, Person, Condition, Doctor Visit, and Hospital. The 1971 NHIS data file layout documentation files are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentation/NHIS/1971 1971 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 CONDITON.SAS Condition file SAS program ASCII DRVISITX.SAS Doctor Visit file SAS program ASCII HOSPITAL.SAS Hospital file SAS program ASCII HOUSEHLD.SAS Household file SAS program ASCII PERSONSX.SAS Person file SAS program ASCII PERSSUPP.SAS Person Supplement file SAS program ASCII The 1971 NHIS sample SAS input statement programs are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Program_Code/NHIS/1971 1971 NHIS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND FLASHCARDS The 1971 NHIS questionnaires and flashcards can be found as an appendix to the 1971 Current Estimates publication which is on the internet at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_079.pdf 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 special health topics (supplements) and core in 1971 were collected for 45 weeks. Weeks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 of quarter 2 have been omitted due to budgetary shortage. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *