Description: MEPS collects information about a select group of medical conditions that have been specified by the Agency for HealthCare Research and Quality as "priority conditions." These conditions, selected for their prevalence, expense, or relevance to policy, are: hypertension, heart disease, stroke, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, asthma, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD), and arthritis. Arthritis information is collected by asking respondents whether they have ever been diagnosed with arthritis. Arthritis is also identified by the condition code associated with medical events reported during a reference period. In addition to the tables below, person-level data files with arthritis variables can be downloaded for analysis.

Data tables: The Expenditures by Medical Condition tables of the MEPS-HC Summary Data Tables contain information on expenditures, number of persons, and number of events related to arthritis.

Analytic tools: No conditions or arthritis variables are available on the MEPSnet/HC query tool at this time.