Description

For all event-medication-round links, PANELK reports the number of the panel of which the participant was a member on the event-medication-round link record. MEPS began in 1996 with Panel number 1 and the panel number for persons entering the MEPS in each subsequent year increases by 1, so that 1997 had Panels 1 (the panel that entered in 1996, in their second year in 1997) and 2 (the panel newly entering MEPS in 1997), 1998 had Panels 2 and 3, 1999 had Panels 3 and 4, and so on. PANELK can be combined with DUIDK and PIDK to uniquely identify individuals across panels on event-medication-round link records. IPUMS MEPS offers the constructed variable MEPSIDK that is equal to the concatenated values of PANELK, DUIDK, and PIDK. Beginning in 2018, DUIDK begins with PANELK and so concatenating PANELK with DUIDK and PIDK is no longer necessary.

For more information on the relationship between calendar year, panel, and round data, please see the IPUMS MEPS Panel Design Documentation.

Users should note that beginning in 2021, AHRQ discontinued the public use version of the RXLK file, which contained all K RECTYPE variables. AHRQ determined that the data in the RXLK file are not useful for studies of prescriber behavior because so few drugs link to prescribers. IPUMS MEPS continues to offer the RXLK variables for the 1996-2020 samples. Users interested in the RXLK variables for the 2021-forward samples can refer to AHRQ's webpage on procedures to access restricted variables in a data center.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2020

Weights

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

Flags