Wireless Substitution: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, July – December 2008

by Stephen J. Blumberg, Ph.D., and Julian V. Luke, Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics

Table 1

Table 1a. Percent distribution of household telephone status, by date of interview, for households: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 1c.

Table 1b. Percent distribution of household telephone status, by date of interview, for adults: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 1c.

Table 1c. Percent distribution of household telephone status, by date of interview, for children: United States, January 2005-December 2008

0.0 means quantity is more than zero but less than 0.05.

¹ Questionnaire changes that occurred in 2007 should be considered when evaluating recent trends in household telephone status. See text for more information about these changes.

² Confidence intervals refer to the time period July through December 2008.

DATA SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, January 2005-December 2008. Data are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population.

Table 2

Table 2a. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by race and ethnicity and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2b. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by age and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2c. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by sex and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2d. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by education and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2e. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by employment status last week and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2f. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by household structure and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2g. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by household poverty status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2h. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by geographic region and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2i. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by metropolitan statistical area status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2j. Percentage of adults living in wireless-only households, by home ownership status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2005-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 2k.

Table 2k. Number of adults living in wireless-only households, by calendar half-years: National Health Interview Survey, January 2005-December 2008

* Estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) standards for reliability.

¹ Questionnaire changes that occurred in 2007 should be considered when evaluating recent trends in household telephone status. See text for more information about these changes.

²Confidence intervals refer to the time period July through December 2008.

³ GED is General Educational Development high school equivalency diploma.

⁴ Poverty status is based on household income and household size using the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. “Poor” persons are defined as those below the poverty threshold. “Near poor” persons have incomes of 100% to less than 200% of the poverty threshold. “Not poor” persons have incomes of 200% of the poverty threshold or greater. Early Release estimates stratified by poverty status are based on reported income only and may differ from similar estimates produced later that are based on both reported and imputed income. NCHS imputes income when income is unknown, but the imputed income file is not available until a few months after the annual release of National Health Interview Survey microdata. For households with multiple families, household income and household size were calculated as the sum of the multiple measures of family income and family size.

⁵ In the geographic classification of the U.S. population, states are grouped into the following four regions used by the U.S. Census Bureau. Northeast includes Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Midwest includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. South includes Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. West includes Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii.

⁶ For households with multiple families, home ownership status was determined by considering the reported home ownership status for each family. If any family reported owning the home, then the household level variable was classified as “owned or being bought” for all persons living in the household. If one family reported renting the home and another family reported “other arrangement,” then the household level variable was classified as “other arrangement” for all persons living in the household.

Table 3

Table 3a. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3b. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by race and ethnicity and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3c. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by age and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3d. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by sex and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3e. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by education and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3f. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by employment status last week and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3g. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by household structure and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3h. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by household poverty status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3i. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by geographic region and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3j. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by metropolitan statistical area status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3k. Percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households, by home ownership status and by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 3l.

Table 3l. Number of adults living in landline households with wireless telephones (unweighted), by calendar half-years: United States, January 2007-December 2008

* Estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) standards for reliability.

¹ Confidence intervals refer to the estimate of the percentage of adults living in wireless-mostly households for the time period July through December 2008.

² The sum of the percentage of adults in households that receive all or nearly all calls on wireless phones (shown here) and the percentage of adults in households that receive some or very few calls on wireless phones (data not shown) is equal to the percentage of adults living in landline households with wireless telephones (see Table 1 ).

³ GED is General Educational Development high school equivalency diploma.

⁴ Poverty status is based on household income and household size using the U.S. Census Bureau’s poverty thresholds. “Poor” persons are defined as those below the poverty threshold. “Near poor” persons have incomes of 100% to less than 200% of the poverty threshold. “Not poor” persons have incomes of 200% of the poverty threshold or greater. Early Release estimates stratified by poverty status are based on reported income only and may differ from similar estimates produced later that are based on both reported and imputed income. NCHS imputes income when income is unknown, but the imputed income file is not available until a few months after the annual release of National Health Interview Survey microdata. For households with multiple families, household income and household size were calculated as the sum of the multiple measures of family income and family size.

⁵ In the geographic classification of the U.S. population, states are grouped into the following four regions used by the U.S. Census Bureau. Northeast includes Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Midwest includes Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. South includes Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. West includes Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Alaska, and Hawaii.

⁶ For households with multiple families, home ownership status was determined by considering the reported home ownership status for each family. If any family reported owning the home, then the household level variable was classified as “owned or being bought” for all persons living in the household. If one family reported renting the home and another family reported “other arrangement,” then the household level variable was classified as “other arrangement” for all persons living in the household.

DATA SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, January 2007-December 2008. Data are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population.

Table 4

Table 4a. Prevalence rates (and 95% confidence intervals) for selected measures of health-related behaviors for adults aged 18 years and over, by household telephone status: United States, July-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 4e.

Table 4b. Prevalence rates (and 95% confidence intervals) for selected measures of health status for adults aged 18 years and over, by household telephone status: United States, July-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 4e.

Table 4c. Prevalence rates (and 95% confidence intervals) for selected measures of health care service use for adults aged 18 years and over, by household telephone status: United States, July-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 4e.

Table 4d. Prevalence rates (and 95% confidence intervals) for selected measures of health care access for adults aged 18 years and over, by household telephone status: United States, July-December 2008

See footnotes at end of table 4e.

Table 4e. Number of adults aged 18 years and over, by household telephone status: United States, July-December 2008

* Estimate has a relative standard error greater than 30% and does not meet National Center for Health Statistics standards for reliability.

¹ In this analysis, landline households include households that also have wireless telephone service.

² A year is defined as the 12 months prior to the interview. The analyses excluded adults with unknown alcohol consumption (about 2% of respondents each year).

³ Current smokers were defined as those who had smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and now smoke every day or some days. The analyses excluded persons with unknown smoking status (about 1% of respondents each year).

⁴ Regular leisure-time physical activity is defined as engaging in light-moderate leisure-time physical activity for greater than or equal to 30 minutes at a frequency greater than or equal to five times per week or engaging in vigorous leisure-time physical activity for greater than or equal to 20 minutes at a frequency greater than or equal to three times per week. Persons who were known to have not met the frequency recommendations are classified as “not regular,” regardless of duration. The analyses excluded persons with unknown physical activity participation (about 3% of respondents each year).

⁵ Health status data were obtained by asking respondents to assess their own health and that of family members living in the same household as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. The analyses excluded persons with unknown health status (about 0.5% of respondents each year).

⁶ Six psychological distress questions are included in the National Health Interview Survey. These questions ask how often during the past 30 days a respondent experienced certain symptoms of psychological distress (feeling so sad that nothing could cheer you up, nervous, restless or fidgety, hopeless, worthless, that everything was an effort). The response codes of the six items for each person are summed to yield a scale with a 0-24 range. A value of 13 or more for this scale indicates that at least one symptom was experienced “most of the time” and is used here to define serious psychological distress.

⁷ Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m² or more. The measure is based on self-reported height and weight. The analyses excluded people with unknown height or weight (about 4% of respondents each year).

⁸ Information on an episode of asthma or an asthma attack during the past year is self-reported by adults aged 18 years and over. A year is defined as the 12 months prior to the interview. The analyses excluded people with unknown asthma episode status (about 0.3% of respondents each year).

⁹ Prevalence of diagnosed diabetes is based on self-report of ever having been diagnosed with diabetes by a doctor or other health professional. Persons reporting “borderline” diabetes status and women reporting diabetes only during pregnancy were not coded as having diabetes in the analyses. The analyses excluded persons with unknown diabetes status (about 0.1% of respondents each year).

¹⁰ Receipt of flu shots and receipt of nasal spray flu vaccinations were included in the calculation of flu vaccination estimates. Responses to the flu vaccination questions cannot be used to determine when the subject received the flu vaccination during the 12 months preceding the interview. In addition, estimates are subject to recall error, which will vary depending on when the question is asked because the receipt of a flu vaccination is seasonal. The analyses excluded those with unknown flu vaccination status (about 1% of respondents each year).

¹¹ Individuals who received human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing solely as a result of blood donation were considered not to have been tested for HIV. The analyses excluded those with unknown HIV test status (about 4% of respondents each year).

¹² The usual place to go for medical care does not include a hospital emergency room. The analyses excluded persons with an unknown usual place to go for medical care (about 0.6% of respondents each year).

¹³ A year is defined as the 12 months prior to the interview. The analyses excluded persons with unknown responses to the question on failure to obtain needed medical care due to cost (about 0.5% of respondents each year).

¹⁴ A person was defined as uninsured if he or she did not have any private health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), state-sponsored or other government-sponsored health plan, or military plan at the time of the interview. A person was also defined as uninsured if he or she had only Indian Health Service coverage or had only a private plan that paid for one type of service such as accidents or dental care. The data on health insurance status were edited using an automated system based on logic checks and keyword searches. The analyses excluded persons with unknown health insurance status (about 1% of respondents each year).

DATA SOURCE: National Health Interview Survey, July-December 2008. Data are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population.