Data Collection Technology and Physical Activity
Questions
Major changes in data collection technology:
From
1963 through 1996, the NHIS questionnaire was printed as a paper booklet.
The interviewer read the questions and wrote the answers in the booklet.
Results were subsequently keyed into a computer in preparation for data
processing.
From
1997 through 2003, the NHIS used CASES software for computer-assisted
personal interviewing (CAPI). The interviewer read the questions and entered
the responses directly into a laptop computer.
In 2004
the NHIS questionnaire converted from CASES to BLAISE CAPI software. This
technology continues to the present.
In
1975, questions on leisure-time physical activity were first introduced in
the NHIS, as part of a special topic supplement.
In
1985, the NHIS became the federal government’s tool for monitoring progress
toward National Health Objectives for Physical Activity. A set of questions
about more than 22 leisure-time sports activities, including frequency,
duration, and intensity of each activity
during the past 2 weeks, was
included in supplements variously titled “Health Promotion and Disease
Prevention” and “Healthy People” that were fielded in 1985, 1990, 1991,
1995, and 1998.
In
1997, questions on usual leisure-time physical activity were first included
in the NHIS annual core questionnaire, in the Sample Adult component. These
questions have remained unchanged mid-year 1997.
In
1998, the NHIS questionnaire included both the 2-week sports activity
questions (in the Healthy People supplement questionnaire) and the usual
leisure-time physical activity questions (in the annual Sample Adult core
questionnaire). Both sets of questions were asked of the same sample adult
respondents in the same interview. For a comparison of these two physical
activity measures, see
Comparison of Two Sets of Physical Activity Questions.