Description

For sample adults who were ever told by a doctor or other health professional that they had diabetes (other than during pregnancy) (DIABETICEV), DIAGLUCTP reports the type of time unit (days, weeks, months, or years) sample adults used when answering the open-ended question, "On average, about how often do you check your blood for glucose or sugar? Include times when checked by a family member or friend, but do not include times when checked by a health professional." DIAGLUCTP must be interpreted in conjunction with DIAGLUCNO, which reports the number of (time) units stated in response to the same question. Interviewers accepted responses in terms of the number of times per day, per week, per month or per year that respondents checked their blood glucose. Separate responses were recorded for those who never checked their blood glucose and for those who indicated they were unable to do this type of activity.

According to the survey instrument, if the respondent reported more than 9 times per day, 28 times per week, 31 times per month, or 365 times per year, interviewers were prompted, "Number of times may be excessive for the time period reported. Please verify entry."

For the original NHIS public use data files, the National Center for Health Statistics also recoded these data into a single temporal unit--days--for DIAGLUCDAY, which reports the number of times per day that sample adults ever diagnosed with diabetes checked their blood glucose.

Other diabetes-related questions were periodically included in the survey; see DIABETICEV for a summary of these variables currently in the IPUMS NHIS.

Comparability

This variable is only available in 2003.

Universe

Availability

• 1989, 1991, 2003

Weights

• 1989 : PERWEIGHT
• 1991, 2003 : SAMPWEIGHT