Summary health statistics for U.S. adults: National Health Interview Survey, 2002

This report presents health statistics from the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for the civilian noninstitutionalized adult population, classified by sex, age, race and Hispanic origin, education, income, poverty status, health insurance coverage, marital status, place of residence, and region of residence for chronic condition prevalence, health status, functional limitations, health care access and utilization, health behaviors, and human immunodeficiency virus testing. The presentation of percentages and percent distributions in both age-adjusted and unadjusted versions is new this year.

The NHIS is a household, multistage probability sample survey conducted annually by interviewers of the U.S. Census Bureau for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. In 2002, data were collected for 31,044 adults for the Sample Adult questionnaire. The conditional response rate was 84.4%, and the final response rate was 74.4%. The health information for adults in this report was obtained from one randomly selected adult per family.

In 2002, 62% of adults 18 years of age or over reported excellent or very good health. Fifty-nine percent of adults never participated in any type of vigorous leisure-time physical activity, and 14% of adults did not have a usual place of health care. Eleven percent of adults had been told by a doctor or health professional that they had heart disease, and 21% had been told on two or more visits that they had hypertension. Twenty-two percent of all adults were current smokers, and 23% were former smokers. Based on their body mass index, 35% of adults were overweight, and 23% were obese.