DOI: 10.3886/icpsr09339.v1
title: National Medical Expenditure Survey, 1987: Household Survey I, Population and Home Health Providers
title: Version 1

description: This data collection contains two data files derived from information gathered in the initial screening and Round 1 interviews of the Household Survey component of the 1987 NATIONAL MEDICAL EXPENDITURE SURVEY (NMES). The Person File contains data on each person sampled in the first round of the Household Survey. Data are included on each sampled person's self-reported coverage under private health insurance and public programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and CAMPUS/CAMPVA. In addition, data describe difficulties and help with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, handling money, walking, shopping, preparation of meals, light housekeeping, and the use of telephones and transportation. For persons with difficulties in activities of daily living, there is also information on prior nursing home institutionalization and the use of special equipment, adult day care, senior centers, home-delivered and congregate meals, special transportation, and telephone assurance. The Person File covers a broad range of personal background variables: age, sex, race, ethnicity, Hispanic ancestry, marital status, family relationships, educational status, employment status, occupation, industry, wages and salary, length of time at work, characteristics of the workplace, union membership, and military service. The Home Health Provider File contains data (as reported by the Household Survey respondents) on each provider of formal or informal services who came to the home of a person in the Household Survey sample within a month of the Round 1 interview. Information in the Home Health Provider File includes date of the provider's last visit, length of stay in the home, type of services rendered, provider's place of work, provider's medical specialty, if any, and whether or not the provider was a relative of the person receiving help.
description: Datasets: 
 
 DS0: Study-Level Files 
 DS1: Person File 
 DS2: Home Health Provider File 
 DS3: Data Dictionaries and Technical and Programming Information
description: National Medical Expenditure Survey Series
description: The principal investigator is now known as the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR).
The age distribution for Part 1: 54 and under (N=27,404), 55-64 (N=3,206), 65-74 (N=3,523), 75-84 (N=1,826), 85+ (N=450). There is no age variable for Part 2.
Parts 1 and 2 are linked by common identification variables.
Hard copy supplementary materials to the machine-readable documentation in Part 3 are supplied for this collection.
NMES consists of several surveys including two household panel surveys: the Household Survey and the Survey of American Indians and Alaska Natives (SAIAN). The Household Survey, from which this data collection is derived, surveyed the United States noninstitutionalized population and was fielded over four rounds of personal and telephone interviews at four-month intervals, with a short telephone interview constituting the fifth final round. SAIAN, which was conducted over three rounds of personal interviews, surveyed all persons who were eligible for care through the Indian Health Service and were living on or near reservations. These household surveys were supplemented by additional surveys, most important of which are the Health Insurance Plans Survey of employers and insurers of consenting household survey respondents, and the Medical Provider Survey of physicians, osteopaths, and inpatient and outpatient facilities, including home health care agencies reported as providing services to any member of the noninstitutionalized population sample. NMES also surveyed persons resident in or admitted to long-term care facilities (nursing homes and facilities for the mentally retarded) at any time in 1987. Information on these individuals was obtained from the Survey of Institutions, which collected data from facility administrators and designated staff, and the Survey of Next-of-Kin, which collected data from the respondent's next-of-kin or other knowledgeable persons. Together, the major components of NMES provide measures of health status and estimates of insurance coverage and the use of services, expenditures, and sources of payment for the period from January 1 to December 31, 1987 for the civilian population of the United States. NMES continues a series of national health care expenditure surveys carried out in the past, particularly the 1980 NATIONAL MEDICAL CARE UTILIZATION AND EXPENDITURES SURVEY (ICPSR 8239) and the 1977 NATIONAL MEDICAL CARE EXPENDITURES SURVEY (ICPSR 8325, 8627 and 9076).
description: Civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States living in housing units, group quarters, and other noninstitutional (nongroup) quarters.
description: Stratified multistage area probability sample of dwelling units. Dwelling units including blacks, Hispanics, the elderly, the functionally impaired, and the poor were oversampled.