This public use data file contains the revised medical conditions public use data file from the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component (MEPS HC). HC-006R replaces the original version of this file (HC-006), released in July 1999. Revisions in the current file include the following:
1) the removal of duplicate pregnancy records and pregnancies that began in 1997;
2) the addition of 26 variables, which provide detail on condition-related health care utilization for persons with priority conditions or conditions caused by an injury;
3) the addition of RXNUM, which identifies the number of prescribed medicine from HC-010A (Prescribed Medicines Public Use File) that are associated with a condition record;
4) the replacement of WTPERF96 with the current full-year person-level weight WTDPER96.
Released as an ASCII file with SAS, SPSS, and STATA programming statements and in SAS transport format, this public use file provides information on household-reported medical conditions collected on a nationally representative sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States for rounds 1, 2, and 3 of the 1996 MEPS HC. Updated version of the previously released household-reported medical conditions including accidents and injuries, diagnosis and procedure codes.
The data are being released prior to final data cleaning and editing in order to provide the research and policy community prompt access to MEPS data. Analysts should consider these data as preliminary as they have not been subject to the same level of quality control procedures which are usually performed on products of this type.