• Component Description
• Eligible Sample
• Interview Setting and Mode of Administration
• Quality Assurance & Quality Control
• Data Processing and Editing
• Analytic Notes
• Codebook
  • SEQN - Respondent sequence number
  • HUQ010 - General health condition
  • HUQ015 - CHECK ITEM
  • HUQ020 - Health now compared with 1 year ago
  • HUQ030 - Routine place to go for healthcare
  • HUQ040 - Type place most often go for healthcare
  • HUQ050 - #times receive healthcare over past year
  • HUQ060 - How long since last healthcare visit
  • HUQ071 - Overnite hospital patient in last year
  • HUD080 - #times overnite hospital patient/last yr
  • HUQ085 - CHECK ITEM
  • HUQ090 - Seen mental health professional/past yr
• Appendix 1

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

2011-2012 Data Documentation, Codebook, and Frequencies

Hospital Utilization & Access to Care (HUQ_G)

Data File: HUQ_G.xpt

First Published: September 2013

Last Revised: NA

Component Description

The Hospital Utilization and Access to Care section (variable name prefix HUQ) provides survey participant level interview data on self-reported health status and access to health care topics.

Eligible Sample

All survey participants respond to this section. HUQ020 was asked of participants 1 year and older. HUQ090 was asked of participants 4 years and older.

Interview Setting and Mode of Administration

The Hospital Utilization and Access to Care questionnaire was done before the physical examination, in the home, using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing-CAPI (interviewer administered) system. Participants 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 CAPI system is programmed with built-in 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

The data were reviewed for completeness, consistency, and illogical values.

Analytic Notes

HUQ010: This identical question is asked in the Current Health Status section of the Mobile Examination Center (MEC) CAPI Interview questionnaire (HSD010). There is a small difference in administration of the two questions: participants age 12-15 have proxy responses in the household questionnaire but provide self-reported responses for the MEC interview. Many participants of all ages gave different responses to this question in the household compared to the MEC, so analysts should consider which of the two versions of the question to use in analyses.

For NHANES 2001-2002, there wasn’t a limit to the number of responses that could be given for HUQ080 (number of overnight hospitalizations in past 12 months). In all other cycles of the continuous NHANES, the derived question, HUD080, had an upper limit of "6 or more." Data users will need to recode HUQ080 to make it comparable to HUD080 when comparing the 2001-2002 data to the other 2-year cycles.

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. Both of these are available on the NHANES website. A list of variable names by survey period is presented in Appendix 1.

Codebook and Frequencies