DOI: 10.3886/icpsr20681.v1
title: National Health Interview Survey, 2006
title: Version 1

description: The purpose of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is to obtain information about the amount and distribution of illness, its effects in terms of disability and chronic impairments, and the kinds of health services people receive. Implementation of a redesigned NHIS, consisting of a basic module, a periodic module, and a topical module, began in 1997 (see NATIONAL HEALTH INTERVIEW SURVEY, 1997 [ICPSR 2954]). The 2006 NHIS contains the Household, Family, Person, Sample Adult, and Sample Child files from the basic module. Each record in Part 1, Household Level, contains data on type of living quarters, number of families in the household responding and not responding, and the month and year of the interview for each sampling unit. Part 2, Family Level, is made up of reconstructed variables from the person-level data of the basic module and includes information on sex, age, race, marital status, Hispanic origin, education, veteran status, family income, family size, major activities, health status, activity limits, and employment status, along with industry and occupation. As part of the basic module, Part 3, Personl Level, provides information on all family members with respect to health status, limitation of daily activities, cognitive impairment, and health conditions. Also included are data on years at current residence, region variables, height, weight, bed days, doctor visits, hospital stays, and health care access and utilization. A randomly-selected adult in each family was interviewed for Part 4, Sample Adult, regarding respiratory conditions, use of nasal spray, renal conditions, AIDS, joint symptoms, health status, limitation of daily activities, and behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in addition to questions regarding stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and weight control. Part 5, Sample Child, provides information from an adult in the household on medical conditions of one child in the household, such as respiratory problems, seizures, allergies, and use of special equipment like hearing aids, braces, or wheelchairs. Also included are variables regarding child behavior, the use of mental health services, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as responses to the SDQ, the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire on child mental health. The 2006 data contain the Child Mental Health Brief (CMB), Child Mental Health Services (CMS) and Child Influenza Immunization (CFI) sections. Part 6, Injury/Poison Episode, is an episode-based file that contains information about the external cause and nature of the injury or poisoning episode and what the person was doing at the time of the injury or poisoning episode, in addition to the date and place of occurrence. Part 7, Injury/Poison Episode Verbatim, contains edited narrative text descriptions of the injury or poisoning, provided by the respondent. Imputed income files for 2006 are now available through the NCHS Web site.
description: These data contain multiple weight variables for each part. Users should refer to the User Guide for further information regarding the weights and their derivation. Additionally, users may need to weight the data prior to analysis.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Created variable labels and/or value labels.; Created online analysis version with question text..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Household Level 
 DS2: Family Level 
 DS3: Person Level 
 DS4: Sample Adult Level 
 DS5: Sample Child Level 
 DS6: Injury/Poison Episode Level 
 DS7: Injury Verbatim Level
description: National Health Interview Survey Series
description: face-to-face interview 
The User Guide contains information regarding the merging of files and the use of weight variables, along with information regarding changes to the 2006 NHIS.
Beginning in 2005, the NHIS no longer allows an emancipated minor (someone between the ages of 14 and 17 living on their own without supervision of an adult family member or legal guardian) to be an eligible respondent or a sample adult or sample child. An emancipated minor is not eligible to be the respondent for the Sample Child questionnaire even if they are the parent of the sample child.
Questionnaires have been provided in both English and Spanish.
Part 7, Injury/Poison Episode Verbatim, is available only with SPSS setup files.
 To learn more about the National Health Interview Survey, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site. At that site you can join the HISUSERS e-mail list by providing your name and e-mail address, selecting the item, "National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) researchers", and clicking on "subscribe".
description: Civilian, noninstitutionalized population of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
description: The NHIS uses a stratified multistage probability design. Oversampling of the Black and Hispanic populations has been retained in 2006 to allow for more precise estimation of health characteristics in these growing minority populations. The new sample design also oversamples the Asian population.