National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

The NHANES 2005-06 Occupation questionnaire (OCQ_D) collected sample person interview data on current employment and the longest held job. The purpose of this data release is to provide documentation for OCQ_D variables that are considered confidential and available only through the National Center for Health Statistics Research Data Center (RDC). These are the variables OCD231R and OCD241R which contain the detailed 3-digit U.S. Census 2000 industry and occupational title codes for the sample person’s current occupation; and the variable OCQ392R which contains the detailed 3-digit U.S. Census 2000 occupational title codes for the sample person’s longest held occupation. OCD231R, OCD241R and OCD392R are the source variables used to create the summary industry and occupation group code variables OCD231, OCD241 and OCD392 in the NHANES 2005-06 OCQ_D public release dataset.

In the 2005-2006 survey, the OCQ Questionnaire was administered to survey participants 16+ years of age.

The Occupation questionnaire was performed in the home, using the Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing-CAPI (interviewer administered) system. Persons 16 years of age and older and emancipated minors were interviewed directly.

 Please see the public release OCQ_D documentation.

A subject’s questionnaire interview responses were entered into a pentop computer and then uploaded into a computerized database in the same manner as other sections of the Sample Person Questionnaire. The data was then reviewed for completeness, consistency, and illogical values. Industry and occupation text data were then coded by trained coders at the National Center for Health Statistics using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Census 2000 Indexes of Industry and Occupations.

In the U.S. Census 2000 Occupation & Industry coding system there were 265 specific 3-digit industry codes (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014a) and 509 specific 3-digit occupational title codes available with which to code the NHANES 2005-06 data (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014b). However, some codes do not appear in the NHANES 2005-06 detailed industry and occupation dataset because no survey respondent worked in that particular occupational title and/or industry subgroup.

Appendix A provides a table listing the 265 specific 3-digit industry codes available in the U.S. Census 2000 coding system and Appendix B provides a listing of the 509 specific 3-digit occupational title codes. 


Analysts should be aware that each specific U.S. Census Bureau 3-digit occupational title code actually represents a number of closely-related occupational titles, i.e. each individual 3-digit occupation code could represent any one of 20 to 40 different but generally closely related types of jobs. An appreciation of the range specific of types of job titles that are assigned to a particular 3-digit Census 2000 occupation 3-digit numeric code can be gained by reviewing the alphabetic listings on the U.S. Census Bureau website (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014c).

Please refer to the Analytic Guidelines for further details on the use of sample weights and other analytic issues. The Analytic Guidelines are available on the NHANES website.