IPUMS MEPS Terms of Use

When registering to use IPUMS MEPS, users agreed to the terms below. To check your account status or register to use IPUMS MEPS, see account options.

Redistribution: You will not redistribute the data without permission

You may publish a subset of the data to meet journal requirements for accessing data related to a particular publication. Contact us for permission for any other redistribution; we will consider requests for free and commercial redistribution.

Usage: You will use the data in these data files for statistical reporting and analysis only

The Public Health Service Act (Section 308 (d)) provides that the data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), may be used only for the purpose of health statistical reporting and analysis.

Confidentiality: You will not use the data to identify individuals

Any effort to determine the identity of any reported case is prohibited by this law. NCHS does all it can to assure that the identity of data subjects cannot be disclosed. All direct identifiers, as well as any characteristics that might lead to identification, are omitted from the data files. Any intentional identification or disclosure of a person or establishment violates the assurances of confidentiality given to the providers of the information. Make no use of the identity of any person or establishment discovered inadvertently and advise the Director of NCHS of any such discovery (301-458-4500). Do not link these data with individually-identifiable data from NCHS or non-NCHS data files.

Cite the MEPS data appropriately

For information on proper citation refer to citation and use. Publications and research reports making use of MEPS should be added to our Bibliography.

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