Justification for Change

National Health Interview Survey (0920-0214) nonsubstantive change request

Within the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) questions/modules cycle in and out of the survey on a periodic basis to collect new and/or updated information as needed. This change seeks approval to reintroduce a topical module on immunization record checks, last collected in 2001. We also seek approval to collect information on disability and secondary conditions which will be a test of collection methods. Both of these activities will start in the fourth quarter of 2008 and continue in 2009.

The topical module on immunization record checks last appeared in the 2001 NHIS. Vaccines are important defenses against infectious diseases, which remain a major cause of illness, disability, and death. This module will compare information about immunizations from respondents to immunization records of health care providers. As part of the current field procedure for immunization, respondents are asked for permission to obtain immunization records from the health care provider, using a special permission form. Immunization records are then obtained from providers as part of a provider record check study that is part of the National Immunization Survey. The NHIS data will be used to assess estimates from the National Immunization Survey (NIS). The NIS is a telephone survey that has a lower response rate than the NHIS and does not include households without a landline in the sampling frame. The immunization record check data from the NHIS will allow the study of the impact of both undercoverage and nonresponse in the NIS. In addition, the information from providers offers more complete data than household reports alone.

The topical module on disability and secondary conditions is a test of methods which will replicate approaches used to assess disability on the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS). A split-ballot approach in the NHIS will randomly assign each family to either the ACS or the CPS approach. The ACS approach asks about each individual person in the family. The CPS asks whether anyone in the family has disability conditions, and if yes, asks who it is. The primary goal is to identify whether there is an impact on estimates of disability reporting due to the two different types of question administration.