Description
For persons who have at least one activity limitation (LANY), and for whom a birth defect was reported as a condition causing any activity limitation (CLIMBIRTH), CLIMBIRTHNO reports the number of time units which the respondent stated when reporting the duration of the birth defect.
Data on the duration of limiting birth defect were collected via the question, "How long [have/has] [you/person] had [a birth defect]?" Respondents could answer this open-ended question using the time unit of their choice (i.e., days, weeks, months, year, or since birth). The original responses to the question are reported in two complementary variables, CLIMBIRTHTP (which specifies the time unit) and CLIMBIRTHNO (which, as noted above, reports the number of such units). For the NHIS public use files, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recoded the results from these two variables to create two other variables using standard time units: years (CLIMBIRTHY) and groups of months (CLIMBIRTHMO).
