Description

For persons ages 18 and older who have ever been diagnosed as having cancer or a malignancy of any kind (CANCEREV), CNBLAD indicates if the type of cancer diagnosed was cancer of the bladder. CNBLADAG and CNBLADRMS indicate the age the individual was diagnosed with bladder cancer and whether the cancer is in remission, respectively.

AHRQ introduced cancer diagnosis variables to the MEPS in 2008 as part of a series of variables about cancer. All people who indicated that they had been told they had cancer were subsequently asked what kind of cancer they had. From 2008 through 2011, all cancers with a frequency count less than 4 were suppressed from the public data file for confidentiality purposes. Those individuals who indicated having one of the cancers suppressed from the file had their response to CNOTHR ("other type of cancer") recoded to "Yes." For example, information on whether individuals were diagnosed with blood cancer is collected in every year, but the frequency counts only meet the requirements outlined above in 2008 and 2011. So, in 2008 and 2011, there are enough cases of blood cancer for MEPS to release frequencies of blood cancer in the variable CNBLOD, but in every other year, the frequency count of blood cancer cases is too low, and those cases are grouped in CNOTHR.

The same recoding process holds for 2012 forward, except that MEPS suppressed from the file the cancers with a frequency count of less than 20 as well as those considered clinically rare. MEPS defines clinically rare cancers as those that appear on the National Institute of Health's list of rare diseases. For example, blood, bone, esophageal, and kidney cancers were among those included in the 2011 public data file, but were on the 2012 list of clinically rare diseases and therefore suppressed from the 2012 public data file.

Related Variables 

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 2008-2022

Weights

• 2008-2022 : PERWEIGHT

Flags