National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), 1979-2002 Multi-Year Data Files

Author:  National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
Study Number: 3170-7902


in data subdirectory:
                          bytes
                   
  nhds7902.newborn.dat  55,585,816   NHDS 1979-2002 ASCII dataset containing 
                                     records for newborn infants only,
                                     for the 1979 through 2002 data years
                                     631,657 records.

  nhds7989.notnb.dat   185,865,944   NHDS 1979-1989 ASCII dataset containing 
                                     non-newborn records for the 1979
                                     through 1989 data years only.
                                     2,112,113 records.

  nhds9002.notnb.dat   293,588,416   NHDS 1990-2002 ASCII dataset containing 
                                     non-newborn records for the 1990
                                     through 2002 data years only.
                                     3,336,232 records.

  [XXXX]RSE.xls                      EXCEL spreadsheets of tables containing 
                                     information needed to calculate relative 
                                     standard errors (RSEs) of NHDS
                                     estimates.  These EXCEL files have 
                                     parameter values for RSE curves for 1979
                                     through 2002.  Files are designated as 
                                     XXXXRSE.xls, where XXXX is replaced
                                     by a data year between 1979 and 2002 
                                     (e.g. 1979).  Refer to Appendix B in
                                     the data file documentation for 
                                     instructions on how to perform RSE
                                     calculations.

  [XXXX]REG.xls                      EXCEL spreadsheets of tables containing 
                                     population estimates needed to calculate
                                     hospital utilization rates by age,
                                     sex, and race or geographic region.
                                     These EXCEL files have U.S. Census
                                     population estimates for 1979 through
                                     2002.  Files are designated as
                                     XXXXRACE.xls or XXXXREG.xls, where
                                     XXXX can be replaced by a data year
                                     ebetween 1979 and 2002.  The XXXXRACE
                                     files contain population estimates of
                                     single-year ages by sex and race.  The
                                     XXXXREG files contain population
                                     estimates of single-year ages by sex
                                     and geographic region.  See Appendix E
                                     for a complete list of these files and
                                     a more detailed explanation of their
                                     contents.



in doc subdirectory:

  nhds7902.pdf               NHDS 1979-2002 documentation in PDF format

  medicalabstract_2001.pdf   HDS-1 form used for abstracting of medical and 
                             demographic data of sampled inpatients in 2001 
                             (revised to include two new variables)

  medicalabstract_2002.pdf   HDS-1 form used for abstracting medical and 
                             demographic data of sampled inpatients in 2002 
                             (revised to accommodate HIPAA guidelines)

in program subdirectory:

  nhds1979-2002.sas          This is a SAS program to input the data file and 
                             create a working SAS dataset.