Codes and Frequencies
Description
PROSTATEYRC indicates whether the person had chronic prostate trouble in the past year. This variable is created with supplemental programming by the IPUMS NHIS staff from the pre-1997 condition records. For general information about IHIS variables (such as PROSTATEYRC) created from the pre-1997 condition records, see the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables.
Defining Prostate Trouble Records and Identifying Persons with Prostate Trouble
For all available years, males who were asked a direct question about prostate trouble and who have a chronic prostate trouble condition record are given a "Yes" code for PROSTATEYRC. Males who were asked a direct question about prostate trouble but do not have a chronic prostate trouble record are given a code of "No." Persons who were not asked a direct question about prostate trouble, or for whom it is unknown whether they were asked such a question, are given a code of "NIU" (not in universe), regardless of whether they have a chronic prostate trouble record.
For 1973 and 1978-1981, prostate trouble records were defined as those condition records with a code of "187" ("Diseases of the prostate") in the variable DIAGR1 in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from NCHS's Diagnostic Recode #1: Diseases, Injuries, and Impairments. Additionally, to be considered "chronic," prostate trouble condition records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.
For 1982-1996, chronic prostate trouble records were defined as those condition records with a code of "414" ("Diseases of prostate") in the variable C1CONDRC in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from NCHS's Diagnostic Recode C: Chronic Conditions and Impairments.
Related Prostate Trouble Variable
The nearest equivalent of PROSTATEYRC available after 1996 is PROSTATEYR (Had prostate problem, past 12 months). However, researchers should use caution when comparing prevalence estimates derived from these two variables, as both the manner of collecting information about prostate trouble differs greatly between the two. PROSTATEYRC was created by recoding condition records that were generated in response to several different survey questions about health problems underlying disability, sick days, or contacts with health care practitioners in the past year. PROSTATEYR, by contrast, is based on a direct question about whether the person had a prostate problem in the past year.
Comparability
As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for PROSTATEYRC is substantially different for 1978 forward than it is for years prior to 1978. Beginning in 1978, only males living in 1/6 of households, rather than all males, were asked a direct question about having prostate trouble in the past year. There is also a minor universe change between the sets of years 1978-1981 and 1982-1996. These changes require that different weight variables be used depending on which years of data are analyzed. See the "Description" tab for details.
Additionally, there is a change in the way "Yes" responses are coded over time. See the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables for details about the composite coding scheme employed by IHIS.
Universe
- 1973: All males.
- 1978-1981: Males living in 1/6 of households (who received Condition List 3).
- 1982-1996: Males living in 1/6 of households (who received Condition List 4).
Availability
- 1973, 1978-1996
