Here are the steps to formatting and labeling NHANES variables :
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Value labels give a verbal description of the integer values of a variable and can make it more user-friendly. The generic form of the label define command is:
Label define label_name var_value
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Label define
yesno 1 Yes 2 No
Label define age 1 "Age 20-39" 2 "Age 40-59" 3 "Age 60+"
Label define race 1 "NH white" 2 "NH black" 3
"Mexican American" 4 "Other race/ethn"
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Don't forget to put double quotation marks around text with embedded blanks.
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After you have defined value labels, you can associate them to selected variables using the label values command. The generic form of this command is:
Label values label_name var_name
Label values age age
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Finally, label selected variables using the label variable command. User-defined labels should always be surrounded by double quotation marks. The generic form of the command is:
Label variable var_name var_text
Label variable age "Age in years"
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