• 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
  • OCD150 - Type of work done last week
  • OCQ180 - Number of hours worked in the last week
  • OCQ200 - CHECK ITEM
  • OCQ210 - Usually work 35 or more hours per week
  • OCQ215 - Number of days usually worked per week
  • OCQ383 - Main reason did not work last week

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

August 2021-August 2023 Data Documentation, Codebook, and Frequencies

Occupation (OCQ_L)

Data File: OCQ_L.xpt

First Published: September 2024

Last Revised: NA

Component Description

The Occupation Questionnaire (variable name prefix OCQ) section provides survey participant interview data on employment.  The primary focus of the OCQ is data collection on the participant’s work within the previous week (i.e., the participant’s Current Job). The participant’s Current Job is defined as the main paid job worked within the last week, including work on a family farm. Topics covered in the OCQ section include:

• Employment status in the last week;
• The number of hours worked last week;
• Whether the participant usually works 35 or more hours per week;
• Number of days usually worked per week; and,
• The main reason the participant did not work last week (if not currently working).

Eligible Sample

All survey participants aged 16 years and older were eligible.

Interview Setting and Mode of Administration

These questions were asked by trained interviewers the using Computer-Assisted Personal Interview (CAPI) system in the participant’s home or by telephone.

People 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.

The NHANES occupation questionnaire is available on the NHANES website: NHANES August 2021-August 2023 Questionnaire Instruments (cdc.gov)

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

The CAPI system is programmed with built-in consistency checks to reduce data entry errors and online help screens to assist interviewers in defining key terms. During the August 2021-August 2023 data collection cycle, periodic QC checks were performed on the OCQ data being collected; and interviewer-specific feedback and retraining was performed as appropriate.

Data Processing and Editing

Questionnaire interview responses were entered into a tablet and then uploaded into a computerized database in the same manner as other sections of the Survey Participant Questionnaire. The data were then edited for completeness, consistency, and illogical values.

To decrease the risk of disclosure, additional “bottom” and “top” summary codes were implemented for one variable in the August 2021-August 2023 cycle:

• OCQ180 (hours worked last week): Responses 5 hours or less were re-coded as “5” in the public use file, responses 80 hours or more were re-coded as "80." 

Analytic Notes

In general, analysts are advised to carefully review the question wording in the OCQ codebook to make sure they understand question skip patterns and the definitions employed for occupation-related variables. 

There was a slight change to the question wording for OCQ180 starting in the 2019-March 2020 survey cycle. In addition, some of the response options for the question on the main reason of not being at work in the last week (OCQ383), which is collected among survey participants reported not currently working at a job or business, changed between 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 survey cycles, as well. Users need to be aware of these differences when comparing or combining data with previous cycles.

The OCQ data were collected as part of the household questionnaire and, therefore, the full sample NHANES interview weights WTINT2YR should be used for statistical analysis. However, if the OCQ data are merged with the MEC exam or laboratory data, then the NHANES examination sample weights WTMEC2YR should be used for 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