RECTYPE is a 1-character alphabetic variable.
H Household
P Person
I Injury
Description
RECTYPE is an IPUMS NHIS-constructed variable that allows users to discriminate between household, person, and injury/poisoning records. For non-vacant households, each household record is followed by one or more person records. Data at the household level pertain to each person in the household.
The IPUMS NHIS variable RECTYPE should not be confused with the NHIS public use variable "rectype," which distinguishes each NHIS file type (e.g., household, person, conditions, sample adult, etc.).
Comparability
Other than the addition of sub-person record types in some years (e.g., injury/poisoning records beginning in 1997), there are no comparability issues before 2019.
The NHIS questionnaire was substantially redesigned in 2019 to introduce a different data collection structure and new content. For more information on changes in terminology, universes, and data collection methods beginning in 2019, please see the user note.
Universe
- 1963-2018: All households.
- 2019-2023: Sample adults age 18+ and sample children 0-17.
Availability
- 1963-2023
Weights
- No weights are available for this variable. Please refer to RECTYPE for more information.
