Health interview surveys, 1969-1981

The basic purpose of the Health Interview Survey is to obtain information about the amount and distribution of illness, its effects in terms of disability and chronic impairments, and the kind of health services people receive. The Health Interview Survey, 1969-1981 is a cumulative core dataset. The following criteria were used for data selection: respondent's age greater than or equal to 30 at the time of the interview, variables of specific substantive interest, information on a given variable being available for at least 8 years, variables selected only once (though parallel entries exist on the input files that were merged), health conditions that were defined as chronic by HIS and which caused or contributed to the respondent's limitation of activity.