Household health interviews and minority health: the NCHS perspective.

Efforts to identify information needs in the area of minority health have been paralleled by efforts within the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) both to improve the quantity and quality of minority health statistics and to increase the accessibility of these statistics to data users. This paper describes the context in which these objectives are pursued within NCHS. The paper also discusses problem areas which may confound the development and usefulness of minority health statistics derived from general-purpose, household interview surveys designed to produce descriptive estimates of morbidity and health services utilization at the national level. Developments within NCHS related to some of these problem areas are highlighted.