Description

ACNETROUBYRC indicates whether the person had trouble with chronic acne 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 ACNETROUBYRC) created from the pre-1997 condition records, see the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables.

Defining Acne Records and Identifying Persons with Acne

For all available years, persons who were asked a direct question about having trouble with acne and who have a chronic acne condition record are given a "Yes" code for ACNETROUBYRC. Persons who were asked a direct question about having trouble with acne but do not have a chronic acne record are given a code of "No." Persons who were not asked a direct question about trouble with acne, 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 acne record.

For 1969, 1976, and 1978-1981, acne records were defined as those condition records with a code of "7060" ("acne varioliformis") or a code of "7061" ("other acne") in the variables DIAGCODE (1969) or DCICDCOD (1976, 1978-1981) in the original NHIS public use files. These condition code values come from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Revision 8 (1969, 1976, and 1978), or ICD Revision 9 (1979-1981). Additionally, to be considered "chronic," acne condition records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CONDCODE (1969) or the variable CACODE (1976, 1978-1981) in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1982 to 1996, chronic acne records were defined as those condition records with a code of "111" ("acne") 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.

Weights
For 1969 and 1976, ACNETROUBYRC should be weighted with PERWEIGHT.

For 1978 to 1981, ACNETROUBYRC should be weighted with CONDWT2.

For 1982 to 1996, ACNETROUBYRC should be weighted with CONDWT1.

Related Acne Variables
The nearest equivalent of ACNETROUBYRC available after 1996 is ACNEYR (Had severe acne, past 12 months). However, researchers should use caution when comparing prevalence estimates derived from these two variables, as the manner of collecting information about acne differs greatly between the two. ACNETROUBYRC 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. ACNEYR, by contrast, is based on a direct question about whether the person had the condition acne.

Comparability

As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for ACNETROUBYRC is substantially different for 1978 forward than it is for years prior to 1978. Beginning in 1978, only persons living in 1/6 of households, rather than all persons, were asked a direct question about having acne 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

Availability

• 1969, 1976, 1978-1996

Weights

• 1969, 1976 : PERWEIGHT
• 1982-1996 : CONDWT1
• 1978-1981 : CONDWT2