Table of Contents

Component Description

The Acculturation section (prefix ACQ) provides personal interview data on language use in the home. Questions asked and response categories used were customized, based on self-identified race and Hispanic origin, as shown in the table below.

Participants' Self-Identification Question Asked Response Categories Variable Name for Data Release
Non-Hispanic white, Non-Hispanic black, or other race - including multi-racial What language(s) do you usually speak at home? Check all that apply :
English (ACD011A)
Spanish (ACD011B)
Other languages (ACD011C)
ACD011a-c
Mexican American or other Hispanic What language(s) do you usually speak at home? Do you speak only Spanish, more Spanish than English, both equally, more English than Spanish, or only English? only Spanish
more Spanish than English
both equally
more English than Spanish
only English
ACD040
Non-Hispanic Asian Do you speak only (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE), more (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE) than English, both equally, more English than (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE), or only English?

Note: Participant self-reported "NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE" used at home is pre-filled in this question during the interview.
only non-English language
more non-English than English
both equally
more English than non-English language
only English
ACD110

Eligible Sample

Participants ages 12 and older were eligible for this section.

Interview Setting and Mode of Administration

These questions were asked, in the home, by trained interviewers using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) system.

Persons 16 years of age and older and emancipated minors were interviewed directly. A proxy provided information for survey participants who were under 16 years of age and for individuals who could not answer the questions themselves.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

The Acculturation questionnaire data were systematically reviewed for logical, processing, and data input errors on a periodic basis during the process of data collection.

The CAPI system is programmed with automated data consistency checks to reduce data entry errors. CAPI also uses online help screens to assist interviewers in defining key terms used in the questionnaire.

Data Processing and Editing

Edits were made to ensure the completeness, consistency and analytic usefulness of the data.

Analytic Notes

ACD011A, ACD011B and ACD011C (Language spoken at home for non-hispanic white, non-hispanic black, and other races including multiracial)
These variables encoded the information on language(s) spoken at home for non-hispanic white and non-hispanic black participants, and participants of other races including multiracial. Responses to the question were collected as "check all that apply", which means that the participants could report more than one language and all their responses were recorded. Please note that these variables also apply to participants sampled as non-Hispanic Asian but self-identified as multiracial.

ACD110 (Language spoken at home for Asians, single race)
Question ACQ110, which asks language spoken at home of Asian participants, was added to NHANES 2011–2012, to complement the Asian oversample. More detailed data on specific Asian language(s) used by participants at home is available through the National Center for Health Statistics' Research Data Center (RDC). Please note that acculturation data on participants sampled as non-Hispanic Asian but who self-identified as multiracial are reported in variables ACD011A, ACD011B and ACD011C in this public data set. If you wish to combine these individuals with single Asian race participants in your analysis, you can request access to more detailed Asian language use data through the RDC as well.

Language spoken at home for non-Hispanics (NHANES 2011-2012 (ACD011 A, B, C) v.s NHANES 1999-2010 (ACD010 A,B,C))
Prior to 2011, one single question was used to collect information on language spoken at home for all non-Hispanic participants and the responses were released as variables ACD010A, ACD010B, and ACD010C. Starting 2011, to accomondate the Asian oversample, information on language spoken at home was collected separately for non-Hispanic Asians and other non-Hispanics using two different questions (i.e., ACQ011 and ACQ110). Analysts who wish to include language spoken at home information in analyses that use multiple 2-year NHANES cycles, may recode variables ACD011A, ACD011B, ACD011C, and ACD110 to create variables compatible with those released with the NHANES 1999-2010 data (i.e., ACD010A, ACD010B, and ACD010C) using the following programming code 
    
    If (SDDSRVYR=7) then do;
        ACD010B=ACD011B;
        If ACD110 in (2, 3, 4, 5) then ACD010A=1;
        Else ACD010A=ACD011A;
        If ACD110 in (1, 2, 3, 4) then ACD010C=9;
        Else ACD010C=ACD011C;
    End;

ACD040 (Language spoken at home for Hispanics)
In the current questionnaire, the item number for this question is ACQ041. However, to keep the data release variable names the same as those in previous years, the responses to ACQ041 were renamed ACD040.

Although these data were collected as part of the household questionnaire, if they are merged with the MEC exam data, exam sample weights should be used for the analyses.

Please refer to the NHANES Analytic Guidelines and the on-line NHANES Tutorial for further details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues.

Codebook and Frequencies

SEQN - Respondent sequence number

Variable Name:
SEQN
SAS Label:
Respondent sequence number
English Text:
Respondent sequence number.
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS

ACQBOX1 - CHECK ITEM

Variable Name:
ACQBOX1
English Instructions:
BOX 1. CHECK ITEM: IF THE PARTICIPANT SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "MEXICAN AMERICAN" OR "OTHER HISPANIC" (i.e., RIDRETH3=1, OR 2), GO TO ACD040; IF THE PARTICIPANT SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "NON-HISPANIC ASIAN" (i.e., RIDRETH3=6), GO TO ACD110; IF THE PARTICIPANT SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "NON-HISPANIC WHITE", "NON-HISPANIC BLACK", OR "OTHER RACE - INCLUDING MULTI-RACIAL" (i.e., RIDRETH3=3, 4, OR 7), CONTINUE WITH ACD011A.
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS

ACD011A - Speak English at home - NHW or NHB

Variable Name:
ACD011A
SAS Label:
Speak English at home - NHW or NHB
English Text:
What language(s) {do you/does SP} usually speak at home?
English Instructions:
CODE ALL THAT APPLY. THIS VARIABLE ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPANTS SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "NON-HISPANIC WHITE", "NON-HISPANIC BLACK", OR "OTHER RACE - INCLUDING MULTI-RACIAL" (i.e., RIDRETH3=3, 4, OR 7).
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS
Code or Value Value Description Count Cumulative Skip to Item
1 English 4279 4279
77 Refused 1 4280
99 Don't know 0 4280
. Missing 2553 6833

ACD011B - Speak Spanish at home - NHW or NHB

Variable Name:
ACD011B
SAS Label:
Speak Spanish at home - NHW or NHB
English Text:
What language(s) {do you/does SP} usually speak at home?
English Instructions:
CODE ALL THAT APPLY. THIS VARIABLE ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPANTS SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "NON-HISPANIC WHITE", "NON-HISPANIC BLACK", OR "OTHER RACE - INCLUDING MULTI-RACIAL" (i.e., RIDRETH3=3, 4, OR 7).
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS
Code or Value Value Description Count Cumulative Skip to Item
8 Spanish 19 19
. Missing 6814 6833

ACD011C - Speak other language at home -NHW or NHB

Variable Name:
ACD011C
SAS Label:
Speak other language at home -NHW or NHB
English Text:
What language(s) {do you/does SP} usually speak at home?
English Instructions:
CODE ALL THAT APPLY. THIS VARIABLE ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPANTS SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "NON-HISPANIC WHITE", "NON-HISPANIC BLACK", OR "OTHER RACE - INCLUDING MULTI-RACIAL" (i.e., RIDRETH3=3, 4, OR 7).
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS
Code or Value Value Description Count Cumulative Skip to Item
9 Other 155 155
. Missing 6678 6833

ACD040 - Language(s) spoken at home - Hispanics

Variable Name:
ACD040
SAS Label:
Language(s) spoken at home - Hispanics
English Text:
Now I'm going to ask you about language use. What language(s) {do you/does SP} usually speak at home? {Do you/Does he/Does she} speak only Spanish, more Spanish than English, both equally, more English than Spanish, or only English?
English Instructions:
HAND CARD ACQ1. THIS VARIABLE ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPANTS SELF-IDENTIFIED AS "MEXICAN AMERICAN" OR "OTHER HISPANIC" (i.e., RIDRETH3=1, OR 2).
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS
Code or Value Value Description Count Cumulative Skip to Item
1 Only Spanish, 543 543
2 More Spanish than English 203 746
3 Both equally 258 1004
4 More English than Spanish 250 1254
5 Only English 221 1475
7 Refused 0 1475
9 Don't know 5 1480
. Missing 5353 6833

ACD110 - Language(s) spoken at home - Asians

Variable Name:
ACD110
SAS Label:
Language(s) spoken at home - Asians
English Text:
{Do you/Does SP} speak only (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE), more (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE) than English, both equally, more English than (NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE), or only English?
English Instructions:
THIS VARIABLE ONLY APPLY TO PARTICIPANTS SELF-IDENTIFIED "NON-HISPANIC ASIAN" (i.e., RIDRETH3=6).
Target:
Both males and females 12 YEARS - 150 YEARS
Code or Value Value Description Count Cumulative Skip to Item
1 Only Non-English language 455 455
2 More Non-English than English 66 521
3 Both equally 65 586
4 More English than Non-English 97 683
5 Only English 289 972
7 Refused 0 972
9 Don't know 0 972
. Missing 5861 6833