Agreement between Self-Reported and Routinely Collected Health Care Utilisation Data among Seniors

Parminder Raina, Vicki Torrance-Rynard, Micheline Wong and Christel Woodward

Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population Research Papers from McMaster University

Abstract: Objective: To examine the agreement between self-reported and routinely collected administrative health care utilisation data, and the factors associated with agreement between these two data sources. Data Sources/Study Setting: A representative sample of seniors living in an Ontario county within Canada was identified using the Ontario Ministry of Health’s Registered Persons Data Base in 1992. Health professional billing information and hospitalisation data were obtained from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (OMH) and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). Principal Findings: Substantial to almost perfect agreement was found for the contact utilisation measures, while agreement on volume utilisation measures varied from poor to almost perfect. In surveys, seniors overreported contact with general practitioner and physiotherapists or chiropractors, and underreported contact with other medical specialists. Seniors also underreported the number of contacts with general practitioners and other medical specialists. The odds of agreement decreased if respondents were male, aged 75 years and older, had incomes of less than $25,000, had poor/fair/good self-assessed health status, or had two or more chronic conditions. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that there are substantial discrepancies between self-reported and administrative data among older adults. Researchers seeking to examine health care use among older adults need to consider these discrepancies in the interpretation of their results. Failure to recognize these discrepancies between survey and administrative data among older adults may lead to the establishment of inappropriate health care policies.

Keywords: health services utilisation; seniors; self-reports; agreement; billing data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2002-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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