Description

For all medication-round fills, LINKIDF is an AHRQ-generated identifier that uniquely identifies medication-round records. LINKIDF is created by combining DUPERSIDF with a numeric value that is the same for each fill of a medication within a given round. LINKIDF differs for the same medication across rounds (see MEPSDRUGID for a unique drug identifier across rounds). From 1996-2017, LINKIDF uniquely identifies medication-round records within a panel. To uniquely identify records across all MEPS panels, please see MEPSLINKIDF. Beginning in 2018, LINKIDF uniquely identifies medication-round records across panels due to changes in the construction of DUPERSIDF to add PANELF to the first two digits of the DUPERSIDF identifier and the addition of a 2-digit event type number.

Event-Medication-Round Record Linking
The event, medication-round, and medication-round fill records can be joined together by using the event-medication-round link records. LINKIDF is on the medication-round fill record and is the same as LINKIDM on the medication-round record and LINKIDK on the event-medication-round link record. The event-medication-round link records (K rectype) and medication-round fill records (F rectype) can be linked to the medication-round records (M rectype) using LINKIDK, LINKIDF, and LINKIDM, respectively. However, due to changes in how LINKIDF is constructed over time, IPUMS MEPS recommends using MEPSLINKIDK, MEPSLINKIDM, and MEPSLINKIDF to join the event-medication-round link, medication-round, and medication-round fill records.

See our user note for more details on how to join the different record types and an overview of the event, medical conditions, and prescribed medicines variables, how those variables are offered through IPUMS MEPS, and general considerations to keep in mind when conducting analyses using these variables.

From 1996-2017, LINKIDF is a 12-character string variable. Beginning in 2018, LINKIDF is a 16-character string variable.

Comparability

From 1996-2017, LINKIDF is 12 digits wide and uniquely identifies medication-round records within a MEPS panel. Beginning in 2018, LINKIDF is 16 digits wide due to the increased width of DUPERSIDF and the addition of a 2-digit event type number and uniquely identifies records across MEPS panels.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

• No weights are available for this variable. Please refer to LINKIDF for more information.

Flags