DOI: 10.3886/icpsr08668.v1
title: National Health Interview Survey, 1985
title: Version 1

description: The basic purpose of the National Health Interview Survey 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. There are five types of records in the core survey, each in a separate data file. The variables in the Household File (Part 1) include type of living quarters, size of family, number of families in household, and geographic region. The variables in the Person File (Part 2) include sex, age, race, marital status, veteran status, education, income, industry and occupation codes, and limits on activity. These variables are found in the Condition, Doctor Visit, and Hospital Episode Files as well. The Person File also supplies data on height, weight, bed days, doctor visits, hospital stays, years at residence, and region variables. The Condition (Part 3), Doctor Visit (Part 4), and the Hospital Episode (Part 5) Files contain information on each reported condition, two-week doctor visit, or hospitalization (twelve-month recall), respectively. A sixth, seventh, and eighth file have been added along with the five core files. The Health Promotions and Disease Prevention Supplement is separated into three categories as follows: Child Safety/Infant Feeding (Part 6), Sample Person (Part 7), and Smoking (Part 8). These data files include questions on health and fitness awareness, general health habits, injury control, child safety and health, high blood pressure, stress, exercise, smoking, alcohol use, dental care, and occupational safety and health.
description: Detailed information regarding the use of weights is located within the documentation.
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 online analysis version with question text..
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Household 
 DS2: Person 
 DS3: Condition 
 DS4: Doctor Visit 
 DS5: Hospital Episode 
 DS6: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Child Safety/Infant Feeding Supplement 
 DS7: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Sample Person Supplement 
 DS8: Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Smoking Supplement
description: National Health Interview Survey Series
description: face-to-face interview 
The data contain amp (&), dash (-), and blank codes. In conjunction with the changes made to the core of NHIS in 1982, all 5 types of files have revised tape layouts. In general, identification items are at the beginning of each record followed by household and person information in the same location on each tape. Limitation of activity, acute conditions, disability days, and doctor visits should not be compared to data gathered before 1982. For the Health Promotions and Disease Prevention Supplement, one person was selected from each family interviewed and this sample person was a self-respondent to the supplement's questions.
description: Civilian, non-institutionalized population of the United States and the District of Columbia from 1,900 geographically defined Primary Sampling Units (PSU).
description: Starting in 1985, the NHIS multi-stage probability sampling design incorporates several major changes which facilitate linkages with other National Center for Health Statistics surveys, improve precision of estimates, and reduce costs. Starting with an all-area frame, a reduced number of 198 Primary Sampling Units (PSU) were selected, including two from each non-self representing stratum. Black persons were oversampled. Four independent representative samples were drawn which may be used in any combination.