Description

For all event-medication-round link records, PIDK is a within-Dwelling Unit (DU) person identifier assigned in sampling or by the computer-assisted personal interviewing (CAPI) instrument on the event-medication-round link record. PIDK must be combined with DUIDK and PANELK to uniquely identify persons across all MEPS data. IPUMS MEPS offers the constructed variable MEPSIDK, created by concatenating the values of PANELK, DUIDK, and PIDK.

Please see the user note for more information on the relationship between Dwelling Units, families, Reporting Units, and persons.

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.

PIDK is a 3-digit numeric variable.

Comparability

This variable is fully comparable across years.

Universe

Availability

• 1996-2020

Weights

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

Flags