National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The Dermatology questionnaire section (DEQ) provides personal interview data on sun exposure and sun protective behavior.

The target group for this questionnaire section is participants aged 20-59 years.

This questionnaire was done in the home, using a Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing-CAPI (interviewer administered) system.

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.

Frequency counts were verified during the preparation of the file.

Data collection for the 2007-08 dermatology questionnaire did not start at the beginning of the year 2007. Due to sample size and other disclosure concerns, 2007-08 data for this component are not available publically.

Questions on wearing a hat when in the sun (DEQ034b), sunscreen SPF number used most often (DEQ036) and questions concerning psoriasis (DEQ053, DEQ055 and DEQ057) were dropped from the 2007-2008 data set.

Questions on time spent outside on work or school days (DEQ120) and on days not at work or at school (DEQ125) were added in 2007 - 2008. Responses to questions on time spent outside on work or school days (DEQ120) and on days not at work or at school (DEQ125) were collected in either hours or minutes. For data release purposes all responses were converted to minutes. If participants indicated that they did not spend any time outdoors then their values for these questions were set to zero. The corresponding description in the codebook is “no time spent outdoors”. Values of 1-14 minutes were grouped into one category. The code “3333” was set for participants who reported “does not work or go to school” to DEQ120 or “at work or at school 9 to 5 seven days a week” to DEQ125. These variables were then renamed DED120 and DED125 for release, respectively.

Responses to question DEQ038Q, “How many times in the past year have you had a sunburn?”, with values of 20 or more, were combined into one category. The variable was renamed DEQ038D.

Analysts should be aware that some questions may have very few responses for some categories. Even with two years of data collection, there may not be sufficient sample size for such variables to be analytically useful. In these cases, it may be necessary to combine more than two years of data to conduct analysis.

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.