# Survey of individuals about the surgery they have

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/survey-of-individuals-about-the-surgery-they-have/6500>\
**Category:** HEALTH SURVEYS\
**Created:** [April 22, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/survey-of-individuals-about-the-surgery-they-have/6500 "2025-04-22T22:12:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Serge\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Serge\_Wagner](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Serge_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2025, 10:12pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/survey-of-individuals-about-the-surgery-they-have/6500/1 "2025-04-22T22:12:18Z")

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I suspect that there is no survey that asks whether a U.S. resident of a certain age has had at least one surgical procedure in his or her lifetime by the time of the survey. Is there somewhere I can order a survey with this question?

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**Author:** ![Dan\_Backman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Dan\_Backman](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Dan_Backman)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/survey-of-individuals-about-the-surgery-they-have/6500/2 "2025-04-24T14:41:39Z")

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IPUMS does not disseminate any survey that contains a single variable that reports if the respondent has _ever_ had a surgical procedure. Within IPUMS Health Surveys, the[National Health Interview Survey](https://nhis.ipums.org/nhis/) does have a few relevant surgical variables, including: [SURGERYR](https://nhis.ipums.org/nhis-action/variables/SURGERYR) (Ever had surgery, past 12 months (available 1997-2018)). Some other relevant variables that can be found by searching “surgery” in IPUMS NHIS include; [CATARACTSURG](https://nhis.ipums.org/nhis-action/variables/CATARACTSURG#codes_section) (Ever had cataract surgery (available 1984, 2008, 2016-2017, 2023) and [SURGERYNO](https://nhis.ipums.org/nhis-action/variables/SURGERYRNO#codes_section)(Total number of surgeries in past 12 months (available: 1997-2011, 2015-2018). IPUMS is not associated with the following databases, but you may consider looking into the [Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project,](https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/db/availability_public.jsp) which provides access (at a cost) to the [Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample](https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/nassoverview.jsp) and [State Ambulatory Surgery and Services Databases](https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/db/state/sasddbdocumentation.jsp). Questions regarding those data should be directed to the data provider [AHRQ](https://www.ahrq.gov/).