Description
For all medication-round fill records, MEPSLINKIDF uniquely identifies medication-round records across MEPS panels. MEPSLINKIDF is created for 1996-2017 by combining PANELF, LINKIDF, and a 2-digit event type number ("03" for prescribed medicines, "02" for other medical expenses, and "01" for all other event types). IPUMS MEPS staff create MEPSLINKIDF to provide a single, universal linking key for linking across MEPS event and medication-round records.
Beginning in 2018, AHRQ modified the identifiers DUIDF and DUPERSIDF (which combines DUIDF with PIDF) on the original MEPS data files to append information about PANELF to the first two columns. AHRQ also added a 2-digit event type number beginning in 2018. MEPSLINKIDF is the same as LINKIDF for 2018 forward.
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. MEPSLINKIDF is on the medication-round fill record and is the same as MEPSLINKIDK on the event-medication-round link record and MEPSLINKIDM on the medication-round record.
Condition-Event Record Linking
The medication-round fill and condition records can be joined together by using the condition-event link records. MEPSEVNTIDJ is on the condition-event link record and is the same as MEPSLINKIDF on the medication-round fill record.
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.
MEPSLINKIDF is a 16-character string variable.
Universe
- 1996-2021: All medication-round fill records.
Availability
- 1996-2021
Weights
- No weights are available for this variable. Please refer to MEPSLINKIDF for more information.
