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Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) Public-use Data Files

Survey description
Data file description
List of data file variables
Technical characteristics
Geographic coverage
Data availability
Ordering information
Documentation contents
Related reports
Contacts
NHANES Web Site

Survey description
The Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES) was a nationwide probability sample of approximately 16,000 persons, 6 months-74 years of age. Hispanics were included in past health and nutrition examinations, but neither in sufficient numbers to produce estimates of the health of Hispanics in general, nor specific data for Puerto Ricans, Mexican-Americans, or Cuban-Americans.

Data file description
Data tapes from the HHANES are generally organized by the data collection method (e.g., Child Sample Person Questionnaire or Dental Examination). The data files comprising the HHANES include a number of demographic and socioeconomic variables on each tape, including age, gender, ethnicity, income, education, and marital status.

List of data file variables at a glance
Adolescent and adult history questionnaire, ages 12-74 years (Tape no. 6521, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, acculturation, cardiovascular conditions, health condition list, diabetes, functional impairment, digestive disease, health services utilization, hypertension, meal programs, pesticide exposure, smoking, vision, hearing, reproductive health, and selected conditions.

Alcohol consumption, ages 12-74 years
(Tape no. 6533)
Demographic characteristics and alcohol consumption information.

Blood and urine assessments, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6511, Version 3)
Demographic characteristics and a variety of biochemical and hematologic assessments.

Body measurements, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6501, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, skeletal breadths, skinfolds, circumferences, heights, length, weights, and handedness.

Child history questionnaire, ages 6 months-11 years (Tape no. 6522, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, birth data, health conditions, dental, anemia, functional impairment, health services, meal programs, school attendance, language use, tuberculosis, weight, immunizations, pesticide exposure, vision, and hearing.

Dental health, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6505, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, dental examination, self-described condition of teeth and gums, trouble biting or chewing, why and when last visited dentist or dental hygienist, dental insurance. Dental exam includes tooth counts, surface codes (each tooth), caries, periodontal index, oral hygiene, orthodontic treatment, severe malocclusion, and dental status.

Depression measures, ages 20-74 years (Tape no. 6523, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) items, diagnostic variable for major depressive episode, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) items, CES-D total score, and CES-D caseness score.

Diabetes and OGTT data, ages 20-74 years (Tape no. 6506)
Demographic characteristics, medical history information related to diabetes, data from a glucose challenge questionnaire, and plasma glucose values with computed time intervals.

Dietary practices, food frequency, and total nutrient intake, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6525, Version 3)
Demographic characteristics are listed for all persons. Dietary practices data include information on diets and eating habits. Food frequency data include frequency of consumption of foods from over 50 food groupings. Total nutrient intakes based on one 24-hour recall are also included.

Drug abuse, ages 12-74 years (Tape no. 6543)
Demographic characteristics; use of selected barbiturates, sedatives, marijuana, hashish, inhalants, and cocaine.

Gallbladder and ultrasound data, ages 20-74 years (Tape no. 6504)
Demographic characteristics, medical history information related to digestive disease, and results of an examination of the gallbladder performed by ultrasound.

Hearing, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6502)
Demographic characteristics, medical history information related to hearing, findings from a brief physician's examination of the ear, and results of audiometric testing.

24-hour recall, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6526)
Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics are listed for persons 6 months 74 years. A separate record for each food item consumed by each person contains the amount of calories, protein, total fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, alcohol, vitamin A, carotenes, alpha-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, folacin, vitamin B12, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, sodium, and potassium. The tape also contains a description of the food, ingestion period, approximate time of consumption, and food source.

Measurements and interpretation of electrocardiograms (Tape no. 6540)
Demographic characteristics are listed for persons 20-74 years. Tape also contains the folllowing items: summary diagnoses Minnesota Code, Cardiac Infarction/Injury Score, left ventricular (LV) mass and LV Mass Index, heart rate and basic electrocardiogram (ECG) interval and mean axis measurements, ECG wave amplitude and duration measurements.

Physician's examination, ages 6 months-74 years (Tape no. 6509, Version 2)
Demographic characteristics, physical examination including skull, ears, nose, lips, pharynx, eyes, neck, pulse, blood pressure, chest, heart, abdomen, Tanner staging, extremities, joints, neurologic evaluation, back, gait, varicose veins, physician's impression of overall health status, and diagnostic impressions with the Eighth Revision, International Classification of Diseases.

Vision, ages 6-74 years (Tape no. 6507)
Demographic characteristics, medical history information related to vision, findings from a brief physician's examination of the eyes, and results from near and distant vision tests.

Data file technical characteristics
All files are fixed-length, blocked files. Characteristics for each file, including number of records, record length, block size, and number of reels, are provided below.

Geographic coverage
The population for this study consisted of Mexican-Americans living in the five southwestern States (Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California); Cuban-Americans living in Dade County, Florida; and Puerto Ricans living in portions of New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Sample sizes and response rates are:

Data availability
All data tapes available from HHANES contain data collected over the entire course of the survey, July 1982-December 1984. Data from this study are only available on tape. Other studies related to this survey are NHANES I , NHANES II, NHANES III and NHES, Cycle 1, Cycle 2, and Cycle 3.

Ordering information
Data from the HHANES can only be purchased through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). Please contact NTIS for pricing.

Documentation contents
Each HHANES data tape is accompanied by printed documentation. The documentation contains the tape content and technical information about the use of HHANES data, including the discussion of possible sources of error, use of sampling weights, and variance estimation procedures. Notes are provided to explain certain items included on the tape that are not self-explanatory or documented elsewhere.

Related reports
A detailed description of the design and operation of the HHANES is in Vital and Health Statistics, Series 1, No. 19. This report includes a discussion of the rationale and purpose of the survey, the sampling plan, quality control measures used, analytic methods, and some of the cross-cultural aspects of the survey. The actual data collection instruments used are included in an appendix to the report. Researchers contemplating the use of HHANES data tapes are urged to become familiar with the content of this report before planning any analyses. Reports that relate to the data are available in Vital and Health Statistics, Series 11, Nos. 239 and 240; and Series 2, No. 111.

This page last reviewed September 04, 2008