Impact of Proposed NHIS Redesign on Family Questionnaire

The proposed 2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) redesign features questions focused on the health of one randomly selected sample adult and one randomly selected sample child in each household. This approach will move critical family-level content from the current family questionnaire to the redesigned sample adult and sample child questionnaire modules. Family-level content will be collected from the sample adult and a respondent on behalf of the sample child directly, rather than from another family member. This page provides more detail about how existing family-level content will (or will not) change in the redesign.

Most of the crucial context areas are still covered on the survey, but there is some loss of the content that has been collected in the family questionnaire. This is the proposed content as of June 2016; additional changes are expected before the redesign is finalized.

Asked about each member of the household

• Age 
• Sex 
• Race/ethnicity 
• Active duty military status

Asked about each adult

• Employment status
• Education

Asked about the family unit

• Family size and structure (e.g., adult living alone, unrelated adults living together, related adults with no children, adults with children)
• Family income, family-level poverty thresholds
• Income transfer program participation, e.g. SSI, TANF, WIC, SNAP
• Housing owned/rented, rental assistance
• Financial burdens of medical care
• Whether any adult in family speaks English very well
• Landline and wireless phones in home

Asked about the sample adult

• Marital status (including non-marital cohabitation and same-sex partnerships)
• Born in US, years in US, US citizenship
• Detailed employment, hours worked last week, reasons for not working, health insurance at workplace
• Veteran status
• General health status
• Limited in work or unable to work due to health, level of difficulty with personal care
• Detailed health insurance coverage/uninsured
• Hospitalized overnight, saw health professional
• Delays in care due to cost, non-receipt of care due to cost
• Injuries

Asked about the sample child

• Born in US, years in US, US citizenship
• Current schooling
• General health status
• Limited in due to health, level of difficulty with personal care
• Detailed health insurance coverage/uninsured
• Hospitalized overnight, saw health professional
• Delays in care due to cost, non-receipt of care due to cost
• Injuries

Asked about the sample child’s parent(s)

• Marital status (including nonmarital cohabitation and same-sex partnerships)
• Whether any resident parents were born outside the US

Not included in proposed questionnaire content

• Detailed relationships of all family members to household and family respondent 
• Country of birth (if not US) 
• Number of months worked last year 
• Personal earnings amounts 
• Active duty time periods 
• Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), disability-associated conditions 
• Receipt of medical advice by phone 
• Amount family spent out of pocket for medical care

For more information about the NHIS content redesign, visit the NHIS redesign website.