I’m trying to extract the variable in MEPS for self-assessed mental health (with answers poor, fair, good, very good, excellent) but I can’t find it on IPUMs. According to AI the name should be MNHLTH. Is it there and I’m missing it, under some other name, or not there? Also, I’m trying to get the MCS (mental component summary score) through 2022 but it is only listed as being available through 2016. (AI says it should be available in later years although without full comparability to the pre-2016 data.) Any help available on this?
I believe that the variable for self-assessed mental health that you are looking for is MHLTHRD, which was just released by the IPUMS MEPS team last week!
Generally, the search tool is useful for looking up keywords (e.g. “mental”), but may be less helpful with searching for specific variable names, which will often differ between IPUMS and the AHRQ files. Alternatively, the drop down menus from the variable selection tool can be used to find related variables. The menu is organized by the record type that the variable is located on (annual, round, condition, event, and prescribed medicine), so it is easiest to find them when you know which category the variable that you’re looking for falls under. MHLTHRD is asked of respondents in each round of the survey, and is therefore grouped with other round-level variables in the Round → Conditions category. Other variables, such as the mental component score (MCS), are released annually and are available under the Annual → General Health → Adult Menu Health category (see the screenshot of the drop-down menu below).
The MCS was calculated by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) using a proprietary algorithm that weights responses to the Short-Form 12 (SF-12) from the Adult Self-Administered Questionnaire (SAQ). However, the SF-12 was replaced by the Veteran’s RAND 12-item (VR-12) in 2017 and used to construct the AHRQ-provided MCS for samples from 2017-onwards. While the questions in the SF-12 had a five-point response scale, the VR-12 questions had a six-point scale, which affected comparability with earlier samples. A bridging algorithm was developed and has been applied to both the VR-12 PCS and MCS score variables (VPCS42 and VMCS42 in the original AHRQ files). More information is available in the 2022 Full Year Consolidated documentation file on the AHRQ website.
IPUMS MEPS does not currently offer the MCS from 2017-onwards. I will share your interest with my colleagues who can look into extending availability of this variable. In the meantime, you can obtain MCS directly from the AHRQ full-year consolidated files and merge this data with an IPUMS extract (see our user guide on merging for detailed instructions).
Thanks. This is very helpful!