1997 NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY 04/05/2001 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 (301-458-4500). 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 noninstitutionalized 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. NOTE TO USERS In 1997, the NHIS changed significantly in virtually all aspects of questionnaire design and content. As with any newly designed system, there may be occasions when corrections or updates are found to be necessary. 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. 1997 NHIS FILES AND DOCUMENTATION The files listed below comprise the 1997 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) public use data release. A copy of this file (README.TXT) is located in ASCII format with each of the following file groups. 1997 NHIS DATA FILES The 1997 NHIS data have been divided into nine data files. For ease of transmission, each of the 1997 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 NHIS1997. To do this, create a directory on your C: drive called NHIS1997. Then, using your browser, go to the FTP site containing the 1997 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:\nhis1997\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 NHIS1997 and do the following: - From DOS - in the c:\nhis1997 directory, type HOUSEHLD and hit Enter - From Windows - Double-click on HOUSEHLD.EXE or Click the Start Button, Click Run, enter c:\nhis1997\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 1997 NHIS files are large in size. Please use caution and check your disk drive capacity before extracting. ------- File Size ------ Description File Compressed Uncompressed File Name of Component Format (KB) (KB) HOUSEHLD.EXE Household Data ASCII 305 2,669 FAMILYXX.EXE Family Data ASCII 1,044 7,022 PERSONSX.EXE Person Data ASCII 4,154 73,768 SAMADULT.EXE Sample Adult Data ASCII 2,767 27,158 SAMCHILD.EXE Sample Child Data ASCII 475 2,540 IMMUNIZE.EXE Immunization Data ASCII 559 9,506 INJEPSOD.EXE Injury Episode " ASCII 64 393 INJVERBT.EXE Injury Verbatim " ASCII 144 1,947 POIEPSOD.EXE Poison Episode " ASCII 6 10 The 1997 NHIS data files are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Datasets/NHIS/1997 1997 NHIS SAS AND SPSS INPUT STATEMENTS Sample SAS and SPSS input statement programs have been provided for each data file. By using the ASCII data files (.DAT files) as input to these programs, SAS and SPSS data files can be created. The SAS and SPSS input statement programs are stored in ASCII format. File File Size File Name Description of Component Format (KB) HOUSEHLD.SAS Household SAS program ASCII 9 FAMILYXX.SAS Family SAS program ASCII 20 PERSONSX.SAS Person SAS program ASCII 87 SAMADULT.SAS Sample Adult SAS program ASCII 92 SAMCHILD.SAS Sample Child SAS program ASCII 30 IMMUNIZE.SAS Immunization SAS program ASCII 39 INJEPSOD.SAS Injury Episode SAS program ASCII 19 INJVERBT.SAS Injury Verbatim SAS program ASCII 3 POIEPSOD.SAS Poison Episode SAS program ASCII 7 HOUSEHLD.SPS Household SPSS program ASCII 6 FAMILYXX.SPS Family SPSS program ASCII 17 PERSONSX.SPS Person SPSS program ASCII 137 SAMADULT.SPS Sample Adult SPSS program ASCII 134 SAMCHILD.SPS Sample Child SPSS program ASCII 31 IMMUNIZE.SPS Immunization SPSS program ASCII 70 INJEPSOD.SPS Injury Episode SPSS program ASCII 20 INJVERBT.SPS Injury Verbatim SPSS program ASCII 2 POIEPSOD.SPS Poison Episode SPSS program ASCII 5 The 1997 NHIS sample SAS and SPSS input statement programs are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Program_Code/NHIS/19 97 1997 NHIS DOCUMENTATION FILES There is a data file layout (also called data dictionary) associated with each data file. There is also a Survey Description document which contains general information about the 1997 NHIS. The documentation files 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/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html File --File Size-- File Name Description of Component Format (KB) (Pages) HOUSEHLD.PDF Household File Layout PDF 24 16 FAMILYXX.PDF Family File Layout PDF 72 53 PERSONSX.PDF Person File Layout PDF 452 462 SAMADULT.PDF Sample Adult File Layout PDF 460 451 SAMCHILD.PDF Sample Child File Layout PDF 114 100 IMMUNIZE.PDF Immunization File Layout PDF 103 72 INJEPSOD.PDF Injury Episode File Layout PDF 99 76 INJVERBT.PDF Injury Verbatim File Layout PDF 15 9 POIEPSOD.PDF Poison Episode File Layout PDF 19 13 SRVYDESC.PDF Survey Description PDF 135 61 The 1997 NHIS data file layout documentation files are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Dataset_Documentatio n/NHIS/1997 1997 NHIS SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES, ETC. The 1997 NHIS contains only the annual Basic Module which is broken into five questionnaire components - Household, Family Core, Sample Adult Core, Sample Child Core, and Recontact. The flashcards were handed to the respondents to facilitate their ability to answer certain questions - these are referenced in the questionnaires. The Field Representative Manual contains the guidelines and instructions on the survey process and topic areas covered by the NHIS and was provided to the Field Representatives (also known as interviewers). The survey questionnaires, flashcards, and Field Representative Manual are in PDF format. File --File Size-- File Name Description of Component Format (KB) (Pages) QHOUSHLD.PDF Household Questionnaire PDF 39 12 QFAMILYX.PDF Family Core Questionnaire PDF 104 39 QSAMADLT.PDF Sample Adult Core Questionnaire PDF 79 34 QSAMCHLD.PDF Sample Child Core Questionnaire PDF 90 32 QRECONCT.PDF Recontact Questionnaire PDF 14 4 FLASHCRD.PDF Flashcards PDF 845 51 FRMANUAL.PDF Field Representative Manual PDF 4,900 399 The survey questionnaires, flashcards, and Field Representative Manual are located at: ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Survey_Questionnaire s/NHIS/1997 1997 NHIS DATA FILES' RECORD SEQUENCE All records in the NHIS data files have first been sorted by the Household Serial Number (HHX). The Family file has been sorted by the Family Serial Number (FMX) within the Household Serial Number (HHX). The person-level files (Person, Sample Adult, Sample Child, and Immunization) have been sorted by the Person Number (PX) within the Household Serial Number (HHX). The injury files (Injury Episode and Injury Verbatim) have been sorted by Person Number (PX) and Injury Episode Number (INJEPNO) within the Household Serial Number (HHX). The Poison Episode file has been sorted by Person Number (PX) and Poison Episode Number (POIEPNO) within the Household Serial Number (HHX). MERGING 1997 NHIS DATA FILES To merge data from the Household file into the Family file, into any of the person-level files (Person, Sample Adult, Sample Child, and Immunization) or into any of the episode-level files (Injury Episode, Injury Verbatim, and Poison Episode), merge by variable HHX. To merge any person-level file with another person-level file or with an episode-level file, merge by variables HHX and PX. To merge one Injury file with the other Injury file, merge by variables HHX, PX, and INJEPNO. To merge the Family file information into a person-level or episode-level file, re-sort the person-level or episode-level file by variables HHX and FMX and then merge by HHX and FMX. 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/subscribe.html Input your name and E-mail address, select the item "National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) researchers", and click the "Subscribe" button. For additional information on the NHIS, visit the website at: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm For assistance with the 1997 NHIS, call 301-458-4901 or send an E-mail to NHISLIST@CDC.GOV For additional information on NCHS data products, contact the: Data Dissemination Branch, NCHS 6525 Belcrest Road. Hyattsville, MD 20782 Tel: (301) 458-4636 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.