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. 2006 Apr 6;6:49. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-6-49

Table 5.

Frequency distributions (weighted percentages) of health-care and prescription-medication use, satisfaction with care and with providers, and unmet health-care needs, by country and pattern of health-care use in the past 12 months: Joint Canada/US Survey of Health, 2002–03*

United States Canada
Variable Category GP only (n = 3565) GP+DC (n = 511) DC only (n = 84) GP only (n = 2434) GP+DC (n = 397) DC only (n = 51)
Hospitalization 1+ in past year 11.7 11.3 4.6 10.7 8.1 5.3
No. of prescriptions 1+ in past month 67.2 72.2 34.1 64.2 63.3 18.4
No. of different prescription medications <3 in past 2 days 42.2 50.0 31.7 45.4 48.1 17.8
3–5 in past 2 days 17.5 17.9 1.8 14.6 11.0 0.7
6+ in past 2 days 7.2 4.3 0.6 4.1 3.4 0.0
Health insurance Insured, past year 90.8 92.1 72.9 NA NA NA
Unmet needs Any in past year 12.2 12.7 11.1 11.0 11.8 10.3
Regular doctor Yes in past year 89.8 90.8 46.1 91.4 92.5 65.0
Health care quality (past 12 months) Excellent 40.4 42.6 36.2 39.1 35.6 19.6
Good 45.7 43.2 51.5 45.9 47.2 54.5
Fair or poor 11.3 11.1 11.0 13.8 16.0 21.9
Health care satisfaction (past 12 months) Very satisfied 52.0 53.2 36.8 43.4 43.1 27.2
Somewhat satisfied 35.5 34.9 41.9 42.7 40.4 42.8
Less than satisfied 9.7 8.6 20.0 12.3 14.7 26.0
Quality of MD care(past 12 months) Excellent 56.7 58.4 71.5 59.7 52.5 47.8
Good 32.7 33.9 19.1 33.0 35.9 38.2
Fair or poor 7.1 5.0 7.8 5.8 10.9 14.0
Satisfaction of MDcare (past 12 months) Very satisfied 65.5 70.2 59.0 65.9 61.2 56.2
Somewhat satisfied 26.2 22.1 35.0 27.0 29.2 29.9
Less than satisfied 4.7 4.2 4.4 5.3 8.7 14.0
Chiropractic visits (past 12 months) 0 100 0 0 100 0 0
1 20.6 23.2 13.8 21.6
2–5 34.3 38.2 33.8 35.7
6–10 16.8 10.2 20.9 16.9
11–20 17.3 22.2 19.3 20.2
21–30 5.3 0 7.3 3.2
31+ 5.8 6.2 4.8 2.5
Mean, median 8.36, 4 7.42, 3 9.01, 5 7.29, 3
General practitioner or family doctor visits (past 12 months) 0 0 0 100 0 0 100
1 30.0 26.3 27.9 22.6
2–5 53.7 58.6 52.8 56.7
6–10 9.6 9.7 9.8 10.2
11–20 5.3 3.1 8.0 9.2
21–30 0.8 1.3 0.8 1.2
31+ 0.7 1.0 0.8 0.2
Mean, median 3.66, 2 3.73, 2 4.08, 2 4.21, 3
All health-care visits (past 12 months) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 4.8 0 4.7 4.6 0 7.1
2–5 43.4 10.6 38.0 45.1 8.1 34.8
6–10 26.7 24.6 21.2 26.3 23.0 18.0
11–20 16.4 30.4 19.3 15.7 33.3 25.5
21–30 4.5 16.2 5.9 4.8 18.6 10.1
31+ 4.2 18.3 10.8 3.4 17.0 4.6
Mean, median 9.02, 6 18.84, 15 11.56, 7 8.54, 6 19.04, 15 10.39, 6

* Weighted percentages may not sum to 100 because of missing data or exclusion of certain categories; percentages weighted to account for age, sex, region (Canada only), and race/ethnicity (U.S. only); 3565, 511, and 84 represent 138,802,519, 20,060,412, and 3,453,164 adults, respectively, in the U.S.; 2434, 397, and 51 represent 16,555,719, 2,723,870, and 381,147 adults, respectively, in Canada.

Most recent visit among respondents reporting at least one visit to a physician in the past 12 months.

GP = general practitioner or family doctor; DC = Doctor of Chiropractic; NA = not applicable.