Defining and Updating the National Health Interview Survey Variance Estimation Structure Over a Sample Design Period

• Activity Number: 511
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2014 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Chris Moriarity*+ and Van Parsons
• Companies: NCHS and NCHS
• Keywords: complex sample ; variance estimation ; pooling survey data

Abstract

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is a multi-purpose health survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Public-use microdata files and complex sample design variance estimation structures are available at the NCHS Internet web site. NCHS has restricted microdata files and separate variance estimation structures for internal use. The variance estimation structures are defined for the first year of a new sample design period, and then updated annually to account for new sample areas. The updates are done in a way to ensure consistent definitions over a sample design period, which is important when conducting analyses of NHIS annual data pooled across years. We describe our methodology for defining the structures and updating them on an annual basis.