Wireless substitution: state-level estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2012.
OBJECTIVE
This report updates subnational estimates of the percentage of adults and children living in households that do not have a landline telephone but have at least one wireless telephone (i.e., wireless-only households). State-level estimates for 2012 are presented, along with estimates for selected U.S. counties and groups of counties, for other household telephone service use categories (e.g., those that had only landlines and those that had landlines yet received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones), and for one earlier 12-month period (July 2011-June 2012).


METHODS
Small-area statistical modeling techniques were used to estimate the prevalence of adults and children living in households with various household telephone service types for 93 disjoint geographic areas that make up the United States. This modeling was based on 2007-2012 data from the National Health Interview Survey, 2006-2011 data from the American Community Survey, and auxiliary information on the number of listed telephone lines per capita in 2007-2012.


RESULTS
The prevalence of wireless-only adults and children varied substantially across states. State-level estimates for 2012 ranged from 19.4% (New Jersey) to 52.3% (Idaho) of adults and from 20.6% (New Jersey) to 63.4% (Mississippi) of children.
National Center for Health Statistics.
Stephen J
SJ
Blumberg
NORC at the University of Chicago.
Nadarajasundaram
N
Ganesh
National Center for Health Statistics.
Julian V
JV
Luke
State Health Access Data Assistance Center, University of Minnesota.
Gilbert
G
Gonzales
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D040421:Cell Phone / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013689:Telephone / Q000600:supply & distribution; D014481:United States; D059015:Wireless Technology / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D055815:Young Adult