2016 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Supplement on 
                Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services for Office-based Physicians 
                                   (National CLAS Physician Survey)

                                      Instructions for Using Stata

   
  There are two ways to read the 2016 NAMCS CLAS public use data file using Stata:

  Option 1 - Use the zipped file namcs_clas2016-stata.zip in the Stata folder on 
  the FTP server to open a complete Stata dataset of the 2016 NAMCS CLAS public use file.

  The steps for this option are as follows:

  1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\CLAS2016

  2) Download to the new folder the file namcs_clas2016-stata.zip from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  3) namcs_clas2016-stata.zip is a compressed file which you must unzip prior to use. 
     In order to do this, double click on the file name in your directory screen; 
     an option to unzip the file should appear. A new folder, namcs_clas2016-stata, will probably 
     be created, depending on the software your system uses. The unzipped file namcs_clas2016.dta 
     will be within that folder. This is the Stata dataset. You can then move the file to your preferred 
     location.

     Alternately, you can right-click on the name of the compressed file from your directory screen. 
     On the pop-up menu, there should be an option to extract the file to a location of your choosing.


  Option 2 - Use the DO file (*.do) and dictionary file (*.dct) provided in 
  the “Stata Documentation” section of the Ambulatory Health Care Data website, 
  (under Public Use File Documentation) along with the ASCII data file (namcs_clas2016) 
  in the “Downloadable data files” section, to create a Stata dataset. The file that
  is created should be identical to the file described in Option 1 above. 

  The steps for this option are as follows:

  1) Create a new folder on your local workstation, for example, C:\MYFILES\CLAS2016

  2) Download to the new folder the 2016 NAMCS CLAS dataset (namcs_clas2016) from the FTP server: 
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/datasets/namcs

     namcs_clas2016 is an ASCII file and is not compressed.  Therefore it does not need to be unzipped 
     prior to use.

     IMPORTANT: Stata requires a file extension to recognize this as a data file, 
     so simply rename it as namcs_clas2016.raw.

  3) Download to the new folder the clas2016.do and clas2016.dct files from the FTP server:
     ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/dataset_documentation/namcs/stata

  4) Open Stata, then open "New Do-file Editor" from the taskbar and enter the following script, making
     sure to point to the folder on your local workstation where you have saved the Stata files:
  
     cd C:\MYFILES\CLAS2016\
     do clas2016

     Once this script is in the editor, you can Run Stata from the taskbar.
 

     If data users experience difficulties or have suggestions for future releases of these 
     products, please contact the Ambulatory and Hospital Care Statistics Branch at 
     301-458-4600 or email us at ambcare@cdc.gov.