GSS 16 main file update

Question

I've loaded this file into IDLS, but encountered a piece of strangeness with it.

The codebook indicates that variable HLTH_UTIL_INDEX should have values ranging from 0.000 to 1.000, with 9.999 as a missing. Working with the current version of the data file, I'm encountering a problem - 284 cases report values of less than 0 (to as little as -0.309) for this variable.

I looked at the raw data file to make sure that I wasn't somehow altering it - the negative values appear there as well.

Is there a problem with the data, or with the documentation?

Response

I was doing a presentation to the Health folk at STC using the original file a year or so back and came across the same thing. Since 0=death and 1=perfect health, I felt sure that the -.309 must have been a mistake. Not so, apparently. I asked for an explantion and the quick answer was worse than death. But they never came through on the real definition.

So, it's not an error in the data, but it is a puzzle. And the documentation does not reflect the reality of the numbers. The file I was working with was the CCHS file, not the GSS16. But the rest of the message remains the same.