The goal of this project is to evaluate the relationship between income and health using Medicaid claims data linked to Census Bureau microdata sources (e.g., American Community Survey, Census Numident). The first iteration of this project focused on children and adolescents, but future iterations will include adults. 

It is well established that family income is associated with children’s health. Therefore, our most recent research (see JAMA article below) investigated the association between family income and health. This research was conducted by linking claims-based measures of morbidity and mortality among US lower-income children and adolescents enrolled in the Medicaid/CHIP program (Medicaid MAX claims, 2011-2012) to American Community Survey data (2008-2013) and the US Census Bureau's Social Security Administration death records (through 2021) to measure family income and mortality, respectively. Findings suggest that higher family income was significantly associated with a lower prevalence of diagnosed infections, mental health disorders, asthma, injuries, anemia, substance use disorders, and lower 10-year mortality. 

Aggregated and disclosed data presented in the JAMA article are available for all income ventiles, age groups (5 to 9 and 10 to 17), and measures of morbidity and mortality. Files are provided in Stata and CSV formats. The two versions are identical in content and layout.