MEPS Survey Interview Context Flow

Questionnaire context/flow

For each interview, the questionnaire flow varies slightly so the context/flow detailed specifications are provided below for each panel. These documents identify the specific order in which sections were asked during each interview. To study changes in individual questions by year, compare the section(s) of interest, while noting from the context/flow specifications if and in what order the sections were collected.

Panel 1, 1996–1997 PDF (34 KB)

Panel 2, 1997–1998 PDF (46 KB)

Panel 3, 1998–1999 PDF (37 KB)

Panel 4, 1999–2000 PDF (31 KB)

Panel 5, 2000–2001 PDF (36 KB)

Panel 6, 2001–2002 PDF (37 KB)

Panel 7, 2002–2003 PDF (43 KB)

Panel 8, 2003–2004 PDF (31 KB)

Panel 9, 2004–2005 PDF (37 KB)

Panel 10, 2005–2006 PDF (44 KB)

Panel 11, 2006–2007 PDF (27 KB)

Panel 12, 2007–2008 PDF (23 KB)

Panel 13, 2008–2009 PDF (69 KB) or HTML

Panel 14, 2009–2010 PDF (83 KB) or HTML

Panel 15, 2010–2011 PDF (107 KB) or HTML

Panel 16, 2011–2012 PDF (98 KB) or HTML

Panel 17, 2012–2013 PDF (102 KB) or HTML

Panel 18, 2013–2014 PDF (1 MB) or HTML

Panel 19, 2014–2015 PDF (93 KB) or HTML

Panel 20, 2015–2016 PDF (130 KB) or HTML

Panel 21, 2016–2017 PDF (106 KB) or HTML^*

To study the structure of an interview for a particular panel and round, one can reconstruct the collection interview in the following manner:

Example: Reconstructing the CAPI instrument for Panel 7.

ROUND 1—Using the context/flow for Panel 7, one can see that the sections for Round 1 begins with the following sequence of sections: (RE-A), (RE-B), (CE), (PG), (HE), (CA), (PP), (EV), (PV), etc. Round 1 of Panel 7 took place in 2002, so to reconstruct the questions asked in order, go to each of these sections, copy the 2002 version, and put them in the order shown above.

ROUND 4—Using the context/flow for Panel 7, one can see that the sections for Round 1 begin in the following sequence: (RE-A), (RE-B), (CE), (PG), (HE), (CS), (CA), (PP), (EV), (PV), etc. Round 4 of Panel 7 took place in 2003, so to reconstruct the questions in sequence, go to each of these sections, copy the 2003 version, and put them in this order. Note that in Round 4, the Child Preventive Health Supplement (CS) was collected after HE and before CA.

* Four of the six data collection cycles used for the 2017 data delivery reflect the flow of the Fall 2017 instrument, but two of the data collection cycles used an updated Blaise instrument. For the 2017 data year, MEPS has integrated the data collected with the new instrument back into the prior data structures as much as possible.