Attitude Regarding Need for Help from Medical Professionals: Adults Age 18 and Over, 1987 and 2002. Statistical Brief No. 92

摘要

Individual attitudes and beliefs may affect a person's decision on how and when to use the health care system. As part of a series of attitudinal items, the 1987 National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES) and the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) each contained a question that asked adults age 18 and over whether they strongly agreed, agreed, were uncertain, disagreed, or strongly disagreed with a statement that said they could overcome illness without help from someone with medical training. This Statistical Brief highlights attitudinal variation across various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (age, race/ethnicity, sex, insurance status, education, and family income) and also examines differences between 1987 and 2002. Strongly agreed and agreed responses were combined into an 'agreed' category. All differences between estimates discussed in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level.