# Is self-rated health variable available on IPUMS? I've seen studies using data from the IPUMS with this variable.

**URL:** <https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-self-rated-health-variable-available-on-ipums-ive-seen-studies-using-data-from-the-ipums-with-this-variable/972>\
**Category:** CPS\
**Created:** [July 26, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-self-rated-health-variable-available-on-ipums-ive-seen-studies-using-data-from-the-ipums-with-this-variable/972 "2015-07-26T15:26:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BenedictR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@BenedictR](https://forum.ipums.org/u/BenedictR)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-self-rated-health-variable-available-on-ipums-ive-seen-studies-using-data-from-the-ipums-with-this-variable/972/1 "2015-07-26T15:26:00Z")

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Hi,

I have read studies that have assessed self-rated health and sociodemographic characteristics using data from IPUMS. Is this data available on the website, or do people need to merge other files? Thank you!

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**Author:** ![Tim\_Moreland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@Tim\_Moreland](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Tim_Moreland)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2015, 3:45pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/is-self-rated-health-variable-available-on-ipums-ive-seen-studies-using-data-from-the-ipums-with-this-variable/972/2 "2015-07-27T15:45:00Z")

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The CPS March ASEC samples from 1996-2014 contain a variable called [HEALTH](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/HEALTH#description_section), which is a self-rated health status measure. All respondents indicate their current health status on a [five-point scale](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/HEALTH#codes_section) from Poor to Excellent.

Hope this helps.