Table 2:

Core (required) demographic variables that should be collected for any normative data base

Recommended Core (Required) Variables	CDE Variable Name	Permissible Values	Notes, Including Those from the CDE Web Site
Age	Age value	0–120 yr?	For children younger than 1 year born at <36 weeks' gestation, it is recommended to also collect gestational age. Because of potential violation of privacy legislation and specifically HIPAA regulations, the calculated age should be recorded rather than using the actual date of birth.
Gender	Gender type	Female, male, unknown, unspecified, not reported	Note that “gender” refers to self-reported gender of the participant. Gender is the socially constructed identity of sex and is equated with phenotypic sex. Gender may differ from the sex of an individual determined genetically. The use of “gender” as opposed to “sex” is to facilitate the ease of self-report data collection.
Handedness	Hand preference type	Left hand, right hand, both hands, unknown	Hand which the participant/subject uses predominantly, not necessarily the hand he/she writes with exclusively
Race	Race USA category	American Indian or Alaska native, Asian, black or African-American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, white, unknown, not reported	The patient's self-declared racial origination, independent of ethnic origination, using OMB-approved categories. We note that these may not be applicable to all non-USA regions.
Ethnicity	Ethnicity USA category	Hispanic or Latino, not Hispanic or Latino, unknown, not reported	Category of ethnicity the participant/subject most closely identifies with. We note that these may not be applicable to all non-USA regions.
Socioeconomic status	Education level USA-type	Never attended/kindergarten only; 1st grade; 2nd grade; 3rd grade; 4th grade; 5th grade; 6th grade; 7th grade; 8th grade; 9th grade; 10th grade; 11th grade; 12th grade, no diploma; high school graduate; GED or equivalent; some college, no degree; associate degree: occupational/technical/vocational program; associate degree: academic program; bachelor's degree (eg, BA, AB, BS, BBA); master's degree (eg, MA, MS, MEng, MEd, MBA); professional school degree (eg, MD, DDS, DVM, JD); doctoral degree (eg, PhD, EdD); unknown	Highest grade or level of school participant/subject has completed or the highest degree received. Note that for children, these should reflect the highest education level of the primary caregiver.
	Job classification category	Official/manager, professional, technician, sales worker, administrative support worker, craft worker, operative, laborer/helper, service worker, social worker, unknown, none	Category that classifies work performed by participant or, in the case of children, the work performed by the primary caregiver.
	Family income range	$15,000 to $24,999, $25,000 to $34,999, $35,000 to $49,999, $50,000 to $74,999, $75,000 to $99,999, ≥$100,000, refused, unknown, <$15,000;	Range, in US dollars, of the annual pretax, prededuction total income, of the household of which the participant/subject is a member
Academic achievement	Education service type	Special education, regular education, none, unknown, early intervention	Type of educational services received (as a child)

Note:—GED indicates General Educational Development; HIPPA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; OBM, Office of Budget and Management.