Description

For all medication-round records, PANELM reports the number of the panel of which the participant was a member on the medication-round 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. PANELM can be combined with DUIDM and PIDM to uniquely identify individuals across panels on medication-round records. IPUMS MEPS offers the constructed variable MEPSIDM that is equal to the concatenated values of PANELM, DUIDM, and PIDM. Beginning in 2018, DUIDM begins with PANELM and so concatenating PANELM with DUIDM and PIDM 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.

Comparability

There are no comparability issues.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2021

Weights

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

Flags