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 MD† care (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.