Description

CHEARTDIEVC indicates whether the person ever had chronic coronary heart disease. 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 CHEARTDIEVC) created from the pre-1997 condition records, see the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables.

Defining Coronary Heart Disease Records and Identifying Persons with Coronary Heart Disease

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

For all available years, coronary heart disease records were defined as those condition records with a code of "4140" ("coronary atherosclerosis") in the variable DCICDCOD in the original public use files. This condition code value comes from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) Revision 9. Additionally, to be considered "chronic," coronary heart disease records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

Weights
For all available years, CHEARTDIEVC should be weighted with CONDWT5.

Related Coronary Heart Disease Variables
The nearest equivalent of CHEARTDIEVC for 1997 forward is CHEARTDIEV (Ever told had coronary heart disease). However, researchers should use caution when comparing prevalence estimates derived from these two variables, as the manner of collecting information about coronary heart disease differs greatly between the two. CHEARTDIEVC 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. CHEARTDIEV, by contrast, is based on a direct question about whether the person ever had coronary heart disease.

Comparability

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

• 1979-1996

Weights

• 1979-1996 : CONDWT5