National Health Interview Survey

Each year, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) conducts the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). The NHIS is a personal interview household survey which uses a nationwide sample of the civilian, non-institutionalized population of the U.S. It includes a "core" set of questions which remain virtually unchanged from year to year on a variety of socioeconomic and health-related items and one or more special health topics which vary annually.

 

Source: NCHS

Size: 1 reel with 5 files (16 files with headers, etc.): see original documentation

Years: 1989-94

Media: 9-track tape or 3480

Format: EBCDIC Fixed Length

RecordLength: 335

Structure: Household file:1 record per household Person file:1 record per person Condition file:1 record per reported condition Doctor Visit file:1 record per reported two-week doctor visit Hospital file:1 record per reported hospitalization

Complexity: Moderate; an operating system utility is available for converting EBCDIC records of fixed length to ASCII.