Julia A. Rivera Drew, University of Minnesota, and Jane F. Gentleman, NCHS (retired)

The Integrated Health Interview Series (IHIS) recently made the 2013 integrated and harmonized data based on 2013 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) public use data available for free.

The NHIS is one of the longest-running federal surveys and the principal source of information about the health of the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. IHIS offers a harmonized set of data and documentation drawn from public use NHIS microdata files from 1963 to the present. It also simplifies analysis of trends and change over time using NHIS data by allowing users to download a single file containing multiple samples and variables that are comparable over time. These data are available at no cost.

This latest release of 2013 IHIS data includes more than 1,500 variables derived from the 2013 NHIS public use files. Core NHIS variables are included, as well as variables based on questions from the following 2013 NHIS supplements:

• Health Care Access and Utilization: additional variables that can be used to monitor the affect of the Affordable Care Act
• Family and Adult Functioning and Disability Test Questions
• Family Food Security
• Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention: questions included as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Million Hearts initiative
• Adult Hepatitis Screening
• Adult and Child Immunizations
• Adult Internet Access and Email Utilization
• Child Mental Health Brief SDQ and Adult Mental Health
• Child Mental Health Services
• Non-Cigarette Tobacco Use

Additional 2013 data on imputed income, adult immunosupression, and child and adult asthma was released at the end of 2014. In addition to more variables from the 2013 NHIS data, IHIS will release integrated injury-level variables from 1997–2013 NHIS data.

The IHIS program is part of the Minnesota Population Center, an interdisciplinary cooperative for demographic research at the University of Minnesota. The NHIS is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.