Description

RHEUMFEVEVC indicates whether the person ever had chronic rheumatic fever. 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 RHEUMFEVEVC) created from the pre-1997 condition records, see the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables.

Defining Rheumatic Fever Records and Identifying Persons with Rheumatic Fever

For all available years, persons who were asked a direct question about rheumatic fever and who have a chronic rheumatic fever condition record are given a "Yes" code for RHEUMFEVEVC. Persons who were asked a direct question about rheumatic fever but do not have a chronic rheumatic fever record are given a code of "No." Persons who were not asked a direct question about rheumatic fever, 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 rheumatic fever record.

For 1970 and 1978-1981, rheumatic fever records were defined as those condition records with a code of "126" ("Rheumatic fever, inactive (old) (history)") or "127" ("Rheumatic fever, active") in the variable DIAGR1 in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from NCHS's Diagnostic Recode #1: Diseases, Injuries, and Impairments. Additionally, to be considered "chronic," rheumatic fever records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1982 to 1996, chronic rheumatic fever records were defined as those condition records with a code of "501" ("Rheumatic fever with or without heart disease") in the variable C1CONDRC in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from NCHS's Diagnostic Recode C: Chronic Conditions and Impairments.

Comparability

As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for RHEUMFEVEVC is substantially different for 1978 forward than it is for years prior to 1978. Beginning in 1978, only persons living in 1/6 of households, rather than all persons, were asked a direct question about ever having rheumatic fever. This change requires that different weight variables be used depending on which years of data are analyzed. See the "Weights" tab for details.

Additionally, 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

• 1972, 1978-1996

Weights

• 1972 : PERWEIGHT
• 1978-1996 : CONDWT5