INTRODUCTION Response rates for the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) have declined in recent years. The response rate in 1993 was approximately 72%; in 2006, the response rate was approximately 51%. To assess the impact of this decline on the quality of BRFSS estimates, we compared selected health and risk factor estimates from BRFSS with similar estimates from the National He...

BACKGROUND Before evidence of efficacy, lung cancer screening was being ordered by many physicians. The National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), which showed a 20% reduction in lung cancer mortality among those randomized to receive low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), will likely lead to increased screening use. METHODS We estimated the prevalence of chest X-ray and CT use in the United States ...

BACKGROUND We attempted to identify the domain of self-rated health (SRH) that best predicts medical care utilization among Taiwanese adults. In addition, we examined the association between SRH and different measure of medical care utilization. METHODS We analyzed data on 11 987 community-dwelling adults aged 18 to 64 years from the 2005 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). NHIS d...

While the aged as a group have better access to health care since the inception of Medicare, there are subsets of the population that are still vulnerable to large out-of-pocket expenses. The focus of this analysis is on those segments of the Medicare population which are particularly vulnerable to access problems due to their personal characteristics. In particular, using data from the Nationa...

PurposeTo explore differences in the affordability of and accessibility to health care among adults with hip osteoarthritis respect race/ethnicity, income, insurance status.MethodsThis cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted using 2016 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data. NHIS data collection occurred continuously from January December 2016. Individuals belonging households n...

BACKGROUND Ghana introduced a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2003 applying fee-for-service method for paying NHIS-credentialed health care providers. The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) later introduced diagnosis-related-grouping (DRG) payment to contain cost without much success. The NHIA then introduced capitation payment, a decision that attracted complaints of falling...

BACKGROUND The Saudi Healthcare System is universal, financed entirely from government revenue principally derived from oil, and is 'free at the point of delivery' (non-contributory). However, this system is unlikely to be sustainable in the medium to long term. This study investigates the feasibility and acceptability of healthcare financing reform by examining households' willingness to pay (...

OBJECTIVES This report presents both age-adjusted and unadjusted statistics from the 2003 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) on selected health measures for children under 18 years of age, classified by sex, age, race, Hispanic origin, family structure, parent's education, family income, poverty status, health insurance coverage, place of residence, region, and current health status. The t...