Writing About Your Data, 1st week assignment
Dear colleagues students,
Here’s a description of NESARC data I used in my analyses on previous courses. During 2 finished courses I performed several separate analyses working with different variables, they are described below.
Sample
Sample’s data comes from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), 1st wave, collected in years 2001-2002. It included 43,093 participants from US. The target population of the NESARC was the civilian noninstitutionalized population, 18 years and older, residing in the United States. The sample included persons living in households and persons residing in noninstitutionalized group quarters such as college dormitories, group homes, group quarters, and dormitories for workers.
Black, Hispanic, and Asian adults were sampled at a higher rate than the remainder of the population to ensure reliable estimates of these groups.
Procedures
The main study was conducted in 2001-2002. Trained interviewers visited sampled addresses to select and interview adults through computer-assisted personal interviews. Each sample person was asked questions about background and lifestyle, such as age and education; drinking practices; and related mood, anxiety, behavior, personality, and medical conditions.
Measures
All data I used in my analyses was assessed using the NIAAA, Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule – DSM-IV (AUDADIS-IV) (Grant et al., 2003; Grant, Harford, Dawson, & Chou, 1995):
Lifetime major depression (i.e. those experienced in the past 12 months and prior to the past 12 months) - DSM-IV Diagnoses (Section 14), categorical variable.
General anxiety disorder (i.e. those experienced in the past 12 months and prior to the past 12 months) - DSM-IV Diagnoses (Section 14), categorical variable. For mood and anxiety disorders in each of the above-reference time periods, two different diagnoses appear on the data file: (1) non-hierarchical diagnoses; and (2) those that exclude specific mood or anxiety disorders that are either substance-induced or due to a general medical condition.
Household income - Family income, age & adult nonrelatives in household, Background information (Section 1), categorical variable, originally included 21 categories by income ranges, for my research purposes I collapsed it into 4 income categories by quartiles, “<$19,999″, “<$34,999″, “<$59,999″, “>$60,000″.
Age when started drinking at least once a week - Alcohol Consumption (Section 2A), quantitative variable, values ranging from 5 to 99.
Alcohol abuse/dependence in last 12 months – DSM-IV Diagnoses (Section 14), categorical variable.
Blood/natural father (or mother) ever an alcoholic or problem drinker - Family history (I) of alcoholism (Section 2D), categorical variable. For my research purposes I considered mother and father alcohol problems together and created new variable “drinking parent”, where having at least 1 alcohol dependent parent it takes value 1, and having none - value 0.
Please leave your comments.
Sincerely,
Edita
