Description

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

Defining Rheumatic Heart Disease Records and Identifying Persons with Rheumatic Heart Disease

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

For 1970 and 1978, rheumatic heart disease records were defined as those condition records with a code of "3930" through "3989" ("Chronic rheumatic heart disease") in the variable DCICDCOD in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Revision 8. Additionally, to be considered "chronic," rheumatic heart disease records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1979-1981, rheumatic heart disease records were defined as those condition records with a code of "3930" through "3989" ("Chronic rheumatic heart disease") in the variable DCICDCOD in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from the ICD Revision 9. As with earlier years, to be considered "chronic," rheumatic heart disease records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1982 to 1996, rheumatic heart disease records were defined as those condition records with a code of "251" ("Chronic rheumatic heart disease") in the variable C1CONDRB in the original NHIS public use files. This condition code value comes from NCHS's Diagnostic Recode B: Diseases, Injuries, and Impairments. As with earlier years, to be considered "chronic," rheumatic heart disease records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

Comparability

As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for RHEUMHARTEVC 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 heart disease. 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