The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) is one in a family of databases and software tools developed as part of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). A Federal-State-Industry partnership sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, HCUP data inform decisionmaking at the national, State, and community levels. This page provides an overview of the KID. For more details, see Introduction to the KID, 2009 (PDF file, 795 KB; HTML).

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Contents:

• What is the KID?
• What Data Elements Are in the KID?
• What KID Databases Are Available?
• How is the KID Used?
• Who Uses the KID?
• Hardware and Software Requirements
• How Can Users Obtain KID Data?
• Need Help?

The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) is a unique and powerful database of hospital inpatient stays for children. The KID was specifically designed to permit researchers to study a broad range of conditions and procedures related to child health issues. Researchers and policymakers can use the KID to identify, track, and analyze national trends in health care utilization, access, charges, quality, and outcomes.

• The KID is the only all-payer inpatient care database for children in the United States.
• The KID contains data from approximately two to three million hospital discharges for children.
• The 2009 KID contains data drawn from 44 State Inpatient Databases on children 20 years of age and younger.
• The 2006 KID contains data drawn from 38 State Inpatient Databases on children 20 years of age and younger.
• The 2003 KID contains data drawn from 36 State Inpatient Databases on children 20 years of age and younger.
• The 2000 KID contains data drawn from 27 State Inpatient Databases on children 20 years of age and younger.
• The 1997 KID contains data drawn from 22 State Inpatient Databases on children 18 years of age and younger.
• The KID includes a sample of pediatric discharges from over 2,500 to 4,000 U.S. community hospitals (defined as short-term, non-Federal, general and specialty hospitals, excluding hospital units of other institutions).
• The KID's large sample size enables analyses of both common and rare conditions such as congenital anomalies, uncommon treatments, and organ transplantation.
• The KID includes charge information on all patients, regardless of payer, including children covered by Medicaid, private insurance, and the uninsured.

The KID contains clinical and resource use information included in a typical discharge abstract, with safeguards to protect the privacy of individual patients, physicians, and hospitals (as required by data sources). The KID can be weighted to produce national estimates.

The KID excludes data elements that could directly or indirectly identify individuals. Purchase of the files is open to all users who sign a Data Use Agreement (PDF, 42 KB; HTML). Users must agree to use the database for research and statistical purposes only and to make no attempts to identify individuals.

Identities of institutions are available only in States where data sources already make that information public or agree to its release. For these institutions and for research purposes only, linkage is possible to data to the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey Database (Health Forum, LLC © 2012).

Select for the Introduction to the KID, 2009 (PDF file, 795 KB; HTML).

The KID is composed of more than 100 clinical and nonclinical variables for each hospital stay. These include:

• Primary and secondary diagnoses
• Primary and secondary procedures
• Admission and discharge status
• Patient demographics (e.g., gender, age, race, median income for ZIP Code)
• Expected payment source
• Total charges
• Length of stay
• Hospital characteristics (e.g., ownership, size, teaching status).

The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) for 2009 includes 4,121 hospitals from 44 states. The KID for 2006 includes 3,739 hospitals from 38 states. The KID for 2003 includes 3,438 hospitals from 36 states. The KID for 2000 includes 2,784 hospitals from 27 States. The KID for 1997 includes 2,521 hospitals from 22 States.

The KID is the only hospital administrative dataset designed specifically to assess use of hospital services by newborns, children, and adolescents. The KID enables studies of specific conditions, procedures, and subpopulations that often cannot be assessed with other databases because children account for a relatively small proportion of hospital stays.

Using the KID, it is possible to study varied topics including the incidence of uncommon conditions such as congenital anomalies, the economic burden associated with specific procedures or conditions such as adolescent pregnancy, and the pediatric conditions most often associated with particular outcomes such as death in the hospital.

By integrating data from statewide health data organizations, the KID is a uniform, multi-State database that supports health care policy research on a variety of topics including:

• Use and cost of hospital services
• Medical practice variation
• Medical treatment effectiveness
• Quality of care
• Impact of health policy changes
• Access to care
• Diffusion of medical technology
• Utilization of health services by special populations.

KID data may be used by a variety of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, including:

• Actuarial firms
• Accrediting bodies
• State and Federal Government agencies
• Health care consultants
• Health professions societies
• Health services researchers and policy analysts
• Hospital information system firms
• Hospitals and health care systems
• Health and life insurance companies
• Investment firms
• Managed care organizations
• Pharmaceutical and medical product manufacturers and marketing firms
• Schools of business
• Schools of public health
• Utilization review organizations.

The KID is distributed as fixed-width ASCII formatted data files compressed with WinZip®. Previously it was distributed on two CD ROMs, but beginning with the 2009 KID, it is distributed on a single DVD. In order to load and analyze the KID data on a computer, you will need the following:

• A DVD drive
• A hard drive with 10 gigabytes of space available
• SAS, SPSS, Stata or similar analysis software

KID files for 2009, 2006, 2003, 2000, and 1997 are available through the HCUP Central Distributor. The 2009 KID may be purchased for $50 for students and $350 for all others on a single DVD-ROM with accompanying documentation. Contact the HCUP Central Distributor to complete your Data Use Agreement, to answer questions about any year of the KID, and to purchase your own copy.

For answers to commonly asked questions regarding HCUP databases and tools, please review the HCUP Index Page. If you cannot find an answer to your question, please contact HCUP User Support Staff.

To reach HCUP User Support, please contact us by e-mail or phone:

• e-mail: hcup@ahrq.gov
• Phone (toll free): 1-866-290-HCUP

We review messages daily and will respond to all inquiries within 3 business days.