IPUMS MEPS

Posts related to IPUMS MEPS

Even More IPUMS Data Available in the SDA Online Data Analysis Tool

by

By Daniel Backman

Beyond offering the ability to create and download customized datasets from the IPUMS microdata collections, we also support web-based analysis of the data through the SDA (Survey Documentation and Analysis) online data analysis tool. SDA empowers users to analyze IPUMS data directly from their web browsers without the need for additional software or advanced programming skills. Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or a student exploring data for the first time, the SDA tool makes it easier than ever to unlock insights from our datasets. If you’re a current SDA user and ready to get started, check out the new datasets from IPUMS CPS and IPUMS MEPS. Otherwise, read on to learn more about SDA and how to use this tool to analyze IPUMS data.

About IPUMS & SDA

What is SDA?

The SDA tool is a web-based interface that allows you to generate frequency tables, cross-tabulations, and summary statistics; create customized data visualizations, including bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots; perform regression analysis; and export results as a CSV file for presentations or further analysis.

SDA increases the accessibility of data by allowing users to analyze data through a web-interface without needing to use (or purchase!) statistical software. There is detailed guidance on how to use the tool for analyses and how to manipulate variables. Additionally, it provides exceptionally fast real-time processing of data, making it ideal for use in the classroom or other interactive settings. See our data training exercises page for exercises that will guide you through using SDA to analyze IPUMS data.

Continue reading…

Introducing the MEPS Variable Builder!

by

By Julia A. Rivera Drew

Earlier this year, IPUMS MEPS launched a new feature – the MEPS Variable Builder – to make it dramatically easier to create customized person-level variables that summarize information from the medical event and condition records and add them to your IPUMS extract. If you have ever thought about using the MEPS event and condition data but didn’t know where to begin because of the complexity of the data, the MEPS Variable Builder is for you!

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS-HC, referred to MEPS here) provides comprehensive information on characteristics of people residing in responding households, as well as information about their medical encounters during the calendar year – e.g., office-based provider visits, emergency room (ER) visits, and hospitalizations – and medical conditions associated with those medical encounters. This unique combination of information makes the MEPS data ideal for research questions that need detailed health care utilization and/or expenditure data alongside individual-level correlates of health. However, these rich data can be difficult to work with, creating barriers for researchers who wish to use the MEPS data.

IPUMS MEPS created the MEPS Variable Builder to enable users to easily build person-level variables summarizing information from the MEPS-HC event and medical condition records, also known as “event summary variables.” Using a point-and-click interface, researchers can create custom event summary variables that count the number of events or sum expenditures across event records, filtered on selected characteristics of events and/or medical conditions. Users can then include these custom event summary variables in their IPUMS extract. At this time, the variable builder does not include prescribed medicines data.

In this blog post, we run through an example where we create a variable that is the sum of all expenditures paid for by Workers’ Compensation for medical visits due to a workplace injury.

Continue reading…

Introducing the MEPS Prescribed Medicines Data

by

By Julia A. Rivera Drew

The Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), administered by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is a short panel survey collecting information for a nationally representative sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized population. Since 1996, the MEPS has collected information on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics; health status; medical conditions; and health care access, utilization, and expenditures.

Based on information provided by a family respondent about each family member at each interview, AHRQ produces a dataset of all reported fills of prescribed medicines purchased by family members during the calendar year (including refills). For example, if a prescription was filled monthly, there would be 12 records for that specific prescribed medicine (DRUGID) in the annual file. The prescribed medicines data includes information such as the medication name (RXNAME), national drug code (RXNDC), therapeutic classification (MULTC1), when the person began taking the medication (RXBEGMM and RXBEGYR), amounts paid (RXFEXPTOT), and source of payment (RXFEXPSRC).

IPUMS MEPS provides a harmonized and integrated version of the MEPS Household Component data, including data from the prescribed medicines files.

Continue reading…

IPUMS Announces 2020 Research Award Recipients

by

IPUMS research awardsIPUMS is excited to announce the winners of its annual IPUMS Research Awards. These awards honor the best-published research and nominated graduate student papers from 2020 that used IPUMS data to advance or deepen our understanding of social and demographic processes.

IPUMS, developed by and housed at the University of Minnesota, is the world’s largest individual-level population database, providing harmonized data on people in the U.S. and around the world to researchers at no cost.

There are six award categories, and each is tied to the following IPUMS projects:

  • IPUMS USA, providing data from the U.S. decennial censuses, the American Community Survey, and IPUMS CPS from 1850 to the present.
  • IPUMS International, providing harmonized data contributed by more than 100 international statistical office partners; it currently includes information on 500 million people in more than 200 censuses from around the world, from 1960 forward.
  • IPUMS Health Surveys, which makes available the U.S. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
  • IPUMS Spatial, covering IPUMS NHGIS and IPUMS Terra. NHGIS includes GIS boundary files from 1790 to the present; Terra provides data on population and the environment from 1960 to the present.
  • IPUMS Global Health: providing harmonized data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and the Performance Monitoring and Accountability surveys, for low and middle-income countries from the 1980s to the present.
  • IPUMS Time Use, providing time diary data from the U.S. and around the world from 1965 to the present.

Over 2,500 publications based on IPUMS data appeared in journals, magazines, and newspapers worldwide last year. From these publications and from nominated graduate student papers, the award committees selected the 2020 honorees.

Continue reading…