What is the KID?

The Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) is part of the family of databases and software tools developed for the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The KID is the largest publicly available all-payer pediatric inpatient care database in the United States, containing data from approximately three million hospital stays each year. Its large sample size is ideal for developing national and regional estimates. It also enables analyses of rare conditions, such as congenital anomalies, as well as uncommon treatments, such as organ transplantation.

Advance Your Research

Apply more than 100 clinical and nonclinical variables to your research, including:

• Primary and secondary diagnoses and procedures
• Patient demographic characteristics
• Hospital characteristics
• Total charges
• Expected payer
• Discharge status
• Length of stay
• Severity and comorbidity measures

Address Critical Topics

Rely on the KID to study pediatric healthcare issues, including:

• Use and costs of pediatric hospital services
• Medical treatment effectiveness
• Quality of pediatric care
• Impact of health policy changes
• Access to care
• Quality of care and patient safety
• Variations in medical practice
• Health care cost inflation
• Utilization of health services by special populations

A Comprehensive, User-Friendly Resource

Pediatric discharges are sampled from short-term, non-Federal hospitals that comprise 94 percent of all discharges in the United States. The unique design of the KID enables national and regional studies of common and rare pediatric conditions. The KID represents all pediatric inpatients, regardless of payer, thus providing a more complete picture of hospital care for children than any other national dataset.

Expand Your Analyses

Use HCUP Tools. Free tools and software are available to estimate hospital costs, assess quality of care, and identify comorbidities. Most tools also can be used with other administrative health care databases.

Make the Most of Your Research. HCUP Supplemental Files enhance applicable HCUP databases with additional data elements or analytically useful information. They cannot be used with other administrative databases.

Explore KID Data. HCUPnet (datatools.ahrq.gov/hcupnet) is a free online query system that can provide you with instant access to health care statistics from HCUP databases, including the KID.

Easy to Purchase

HCUP's Nationwide Databases are available for purchase from the online HCUP CentralDistributor: www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tech_assist/centdist.jsp. The HCUP Central Distributor is the entity that accepts, processes, and fulfills applications for the purchase and use of HCUP databases.

The KID is provided in ASCII format via secure digital download from the online HCUP Central Distributor. A statistical software package, such as SAS®, SPSS®, or Stata®,is required for analysis. Programs to load data into software packages are provided.

For a list of prices (including discounted student rates) and complete purchasing information, visit the HCUP-US website: www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/. This site also provides access to aggregate statistics from the KID through the free online query resource known as HCUPnet, and it contains detailed information about the Data Use Agreement, data elements, and software tools.



The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of powerful health care databases, software tools, and products for advancing research. Sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HCUP includes the largest all-payer, encounter-level collection of longitudinal health care data (inpatient, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department) in the United States, beginning in 1988.

HCUP is a Federal-State-Industry Partnership that brings together the data collection efforts of many organizations — such as State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the Federal Government — to create a national information resource. HCUP would not be possible without the contributions of data collection Partners from across the nation.

For more information about HCUP, please visit www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov.