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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Decrease the proportion of adults who report poor communication with their health care provider — HC/HIT‑02 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  Medical Expenditure Panel (MEPS), AHRQ

Baseline: 8.9 percent of adults aged 18 years and over reported poor provider communication in 2017

Target: 8.0 percent

Numerator
(i) Number of adults aged 18 years and over who report having their doctors or other health providers sometimes or never listen carefully to them (in the last 12 months). (ii) Number of adults aged 18 years and over who report having their doctors or other health providers sometimes or never explained things so they could understand them (in the last 12 months). (iii) Number of adults aged 18 years and over who report having their doctors or other health providers sometimes or never showed respect for what they had to say (in the last 12 months). (iv) Number of adults aged 18 years and over who report having their doctors or other health providers sometimes or never spent enough time with them (in the last 12 months).
Denominator
Number of adults aged 18 years and over who visited the doctor in the last 12 months.
Target-setting method
Minimal statistical significance
Target-setting method details
Minimal statistical significance, assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline.
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were evaluated for this objective but it was not possible to project a target because the baseline represented a sharp reversal of a long-time downward trend. The standard error was used to calculate a target based on minimal statistical significance assuming the same standard error for the target as for the baseline. This method was used because it was a statistically significant improvement from the baseline.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)
Numerator:
In the last 12 months, how often did this doctor listen carefully to you?
  1. Never
  2. Sometimes
  3. Usually
  4. Always
Numerator:
In the last 12 months, how often did this doctor explain things in a way that was easy to understand?
  1. Never
  2. Sometimes
  3. Usually
  4. Always
Numerator:
In the last 12 months, how often did this doctor show respect for what you had to say?
  1. Never
  2. Sometimes
  3. Usually
  4. Always
Numerator:
In the last 12 months, how often did this doctor spend enough time with you?
  1. Never
  2. Sometimes
  3. Usually
  4. Always
Numerator and Denominator:
In the last 12 months, how many times did you visit this doctor to get care for yourself?
  1. None
  2. 1 time
  3. 2 times
  4. 3 times
  5. 4 times
  6. 5 to 9 times
  7. 10 or more times

Methodology notes

The Household Component (HC) of MEPS is a subsample of households drawn from households that participated in the prior year's National Health Interview Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. Data for this measure are collected from the MEPS Self-Administered Questionnaire (SAQ), which is requested from adult household members.

A composite of adults responding "sometimes" or "never" to the numerator questions were considered to have had "poor communication" for the purpose of measuring this objective.

All adults except those responding "None" to the denominator question were included in the denominator.

Below are directions for calculating the composite score.

Step 1 – Calculate the proportion of cases in each response category for the first question:

P11 = Proportion of respondents who answered "never"

P12 = Proportion of respondents who answered "sometimes"

P13 = Proportion of respondents who answered "usually"

P14 = Proportion of respondents who answered "always"

Follow the same steps for the second question:

P21 = Proportion of respondents who answered "never"

P22 = Proportion of respondents who answered "sometimes"

P23 = Proportion of respondents who answered "usually"

P24 = Proportion of respondents who answered "always"

Repeat the same procedure for each of the questions in the composite.

Step 2 – Combine responses from the questions to form the composite. Calculate the average proportion responding to each category across the questions in the composite.

PC1 = Composite proportion who said "never" = (P11 + P21 + P31 + P4)/4

PC2 = Composite proportion who said "sometimes" = (P12 + P22 + P32 + P4)/4

PC3 = Composite proportion who said "usually" = (P13 + P23 + P33 + P4)/4

PC4 = Composite proportion who said "always" = (P14 + P24 + P34 + P4)/4

Step 3 – Combine composite proportions to calculate poor communication

Composite proportion who reported poor communication = PC1 + PC2

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Modified, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 but underwent a change in measurement.
Changes between HP2020 and HP2030
This objective differs from the related Healthy People 2020 objectives in that it is a composite of the converse of four objectives including objective HC/HIT-2.1, which tracked persons who report that their health care providers always listen carefully to them; HC/HIT-2.2, which tracked persons who report that their health care providers always explained things so that they could understand; HC/HIT-2.3, which tracked persons who report that their health care providers always showed respect for what they had to say; and HC/HIT-2.4, which tracked persons who report that their health care providers always spent enough time with them.