Some Problems of the Household Interview Design for the National Health Survey

Evidence from earlier surveys and from a pretest conducted in Charlotte, North Carolina, was used in making certain decisions about the conduct of the interview for the National Health Survey. The inconclusiveness of evidence on the use of proxy respondents and on between-interviewer variance led to decisions to accept proxy respondents under certain conditions, and to continue with plans to use a staff of about 140 interviewers, but to accumulate further evidence on both these matters on a continuing basis. Check lists of diseases again proved efficacious in the Charlotte pretest. A recall period of two weeks was adopted for most illness and medical and dental care data, but it was decided not to attempt to count separate attacks of chronic illness. Certain procedures were adopted to improve the codability of disease and injury information secured. * Presented at the "Miscellaneous Session" of the Biometrics Section, American Statistical Association and the Biometric Society (ENAR), 117th Annual Meeting of the American Statistical Association, Atlantic City, N. J., Sept. 13, 1957.