Does Providing Consumer Health Information Affect Self-Reported Medical Utilization? Evidence From the Healthwise Communities Project

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9102045
AutoresTodd H Wagner (0000-0001-7625-3504, Stanford Health Care, autor de correspondencia), Judith H Hibbard (0000-0002-8376-8343), Merwyn R Greenlick, Lynn Kunkel, Lynn E Kunkel
Año2001
Volumen39
Número8
Páginas836-847
Fecha de publicación2001-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMedical Care (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0025-7079 • E-ISSN: 1537-1948
EditorialOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/00005650-200108000-00009
PMID11468502
OpenAlexW2335762082
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas30

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether providing health information to residents of Boise ID had an effect on their self-reported medical utilization. RESEARCH DESIGN: The Healthwise Communities Project (HCP) evaluation followed a quasi-experimental design. SUBJECTS: Random households in metropolitan zip codes were mailed questionnaires before and after the HCP. A total of 5,909 surveys were returned. MEASURES: The dependent variable was self-reported number of visits to the doctor in the past year. A difference-in-differences estimator was used to assess the intervention's community-level effect. We also assessed the intervention's effect on the variance of self-report utilization. RESULTS: Boise residents had a higher adjusted odds of entering care (OR = 1.27, 95% CI 0.88, 1.85) and 0.1 more doctor visits compared with residents in the control cities; however, for both outcomes, the effects were small and not significant. Although the means changed little, the data suggest that the variance of utilization in Boise decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The HCP had a small effect on overall self-reported utilization. Although the findings were not statistically significant, a posthoc power analysis revealed that the study was underpowered to detect effects of this magnitude. It may be possible to achieve larger effects by enrolling motivated people into a clinical trial. However, these data suggest that population-based efforts to provide health information have a small effect on self-reported utilization

Affect (linguistics) · Analysis of variance · Business · Community health · Environmental health · Family medicine · Health care · Intervention (counseling) · Logistic regression · Metropolitan area · Odds · Odds ratio · Population · Public health · Random assignment · Variance (accounting) · Demography · Health disparities and outcomes · Health Literacy and Information Accessibility · Medication Adherence and Compliance · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Gerontology