Description

SINUSTRUBYRC indicates whether the person had chronic sinusitis in the past year. 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 SINUSTRUBYRC) created from the pre-1997 condition records, see the User Note on Condition Records and Condition Variables.

Defining Sinusitis Records and Identifying Persons with Sinusitis

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

For 1970 and 1978-1981, sinusitis records were defined as those condition records with a code of "156" ("Chronic sinusitis, not elsewhere classified") 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, not from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. Additionally, to be considered "chronic," sinusitis condition records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1982-1996, chronic sinusitis records were defined as those condition records with a code of "605" ("Chronic sinusitis") 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.

Weights
For 1970, SINUSTRUBYRC should be weighted with PERWEIGHT.

For 1978 to 1996, SINUSTRUBYRC should be weighted with CONDWT6.

Related Sinusitis Variables
The nearest equivalent of SINUSTRUBYRC for 1997 forward is SINUSITYR (Told had sinusitis, past 12 months). However, researchers should use caution when comparing prevalence estimates derived from these two variables, as the manner of collecting information about sinusitis differs greatly between the two. SINUSTRUBYRC was created by recoding condition records that were generated in response to several different survey questions about health problems underlying disability, sick days, or contacts with health care practitioner. SINUSITYR, by contrast, is based on a direct question about whether the person ever had the condition sinusitis.

Comparability

As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for SINUSTRUBYRC 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 having sinusitis in the past year. This change requires that different weight variables be used depending on which years of data are analyzed. See the "Description" 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

• 1970, 1978-1996

Weights

• 1970 : PERWEIGHT
• 1978-1996 : CONDWT6