National Population Health Survey, 1998-99 [Canada]: General-File

The National Population Health Survey (NPHS) collects information related to the health of the Canadian population and related socio-demographic information. The NPHS is composed of three components: the household survey,the Health Care Institution Survey and the Northern Territories survey. These Public Use Microdata Files (PUMF) contain data collected in the household component of NPHS Cycle 3, 1998-1999. The NPHS household component includes household residents in all provinces, with the exclusion of populations on Indian Reserves,Canadian Forces Bases and some remote areas in Qubec and Ontario. The first Cycle of data collection began in 1994 and data will be collected every second year, for approximately 20 years in total. Three cycles of collection are now completed for each component: NPHS Cycle 1 (1994-1995), NPHS Cycle 2 (1996-1997) and NPHS Cycle 3 (1998-1999). For the first cycle, a sample of approximately 20,000 households was drawn from the Labour Force Survey sampling frame. For Cycle 3, this frame was also used to select an additional sample of recent immigrants and young children, thus ensuring that the data represent the 1998-1999 Canadian population. NPHS collects general health information from all household members and, in each household, a person, randomly selected during cycle 1 answers a more in-depth interview on health questions.For Cycle 3, approximately 49,000 respondents answered the general portion of the questionnaire while approximately 17,000 answered the more detailed health portion. The questionnaire includes questions related to health status, use of health services, determinants of health, chronic conditions and activity restrictions. The use of health services was measured through questions on visits to health care providers, both traditional and non-traditional, hospital cares and on use of drugs and other medications. Health determinants that are explored include smoking, alcohol use and physical activity. New content for the third Cycle of NPHS includes family medical history, self-care and nutrition. The socio-demographic information collected includes age, sex, education, ethnicity, household income and labour forcestatus. NOTE: A master file for this data set exists at SWORDC - Statistics Canadas Regional Data Centre located at the University of Waterloo. See Documentation section for details. The NPHS questions were designed for computer-assisted interviewing (CAI). Collection was divided into four quarters (June, August and November 1998 and February 1999). An additional collection was held in June 1999 with further tracing attempts of non-respondents from previous quarters. Respondents in the sample and the top-up sample of households with young children were first contacted by telephone. 95% of the interviews were done by telephone. NPHS collects general information from all household members and, in each household, a person, randomly selected during cycle 1, answers a more in-depth interview on health questions. For cycle 3, approximately 49,000 respondents answered the general portion of the questionnaire while approximately 17,000 answered the more detailed health portion.