Description

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

Defining Tonsillitis Records and Identifying Persons with Tonsillitis

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

For 1970 and 1981, chronic tonsillitis records were defined as those condition records with a code of "154" ("Hypertrophy of tonsils and adenoids, chronic") 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," tonsillitis condition records must have a code of "1" ("Chronic") in the variable CACODE in the original NHIS public use files.

For 1982 to 1996, chronic tonsillitis records were defined as those condition records with a code of "607" ("Chronic disease of tonsils and adenoids") in the variable C1CONDRC in the original NHIS public use files.

Weights
For 1970, TONSCHRONYRC should be weighted with PERWEIGHT.

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

Comparability

As with all of the person-level condition variables created by IHIS from condition records prior to 1997, the universe for TONSCHRONYRC 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 tonsillitis 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