Description

For sample children, HEIGHTKID reports responses to the question, "How tall is [Child's name] now (without shoes)?" and provides the height in inches of the child. Respondents could report child's height in either inches or metric format (meters and centimeters), but metric responses were converted into inches (less than 1% of respondents reported in metric form).

Questions about children's current height (and weight) were limited to children aged
12-17 years. This limitation was introduced because of serious concerns about the reporting accuracy of height and weight information for younger children due to the rapid growth of children at younger ages. An internal consistency check was also included in the survey instrument to improve data quality: extreme values triggered a request for interviewer verification of data entry and re-asking height (and weight).

Extreme values for HEIGHTKID and WEIGHTKID were subject to data editing, in part to protect the confidentiality of sample children who might be identifiable by their unusual physical characteristics. The sex-specific height-for-age and weight-for-age values of the highest 1½ percent of records and the lowest 1½ percent of records (based on values from the 2004-2008 NHIS) were changed to "96" ("Not available"). In cases where such extreme values were reported for either current height or current weight, the responses for both variables were changed to "Not available" on the public use data file.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 2008-2018

Weights

• 2008-2018 : SAMPWEIGHT