Description

MEPSIDE is a variable that uniquely identifies respondents across MEPS panels. It is created by combining PANELE, DUIDE, and PIDE. IPUMS MEPS staff create MEPSIDE for the 1996-2017 samples to provide a single, universal linking key for MEPS persons. Beginning in 2018, AHRQ modified the identifiers DUIDE and DUPERSIDE (which combines DUIDE with PIDE) on the original MEPS data files to append information about PANELE to the first two columns. This update makes DUPERSIDE identical to MEPSIDE in the IPUMS MEPS extract system for 2018-forward.

MEPSIDE is a 10-character string variable.

Comparability

This variable is completely comparable over time.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

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

Flags