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. 2009 Oct;44(5 Pt 1):1718–1734. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2009.00988.x

Table 1.

Sample Sizes, Demographics, Health Status, Insurance Coverage, and Use of Any Health Care for Men in MEPS Samples in Any of Nine Years, 1996–2004

Age Group Men between 19 and 64 Years Old
Men 65 Years or Older
Veteran–VA User Status
Nonveterans
Veterans Not in VA Care
Veterans Using Any VA Care
Nonveterans
Veterans Not in VA Care
Veterans Using Any VA Care
Residence Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural
Sample size
Total unique individuals 25,691 6,534 4,025 1,200 1,847 623 2,087 767 1,906 567 1,813 707
Average annual sample (SD) 5,037 1,267 715 211 266 92 396 146 311 88 280 114
(1,113) (251) (150) (52) (80) (29) (93) (34) (86) (31) (108) (43)
Demographics percentages (SE)
Family income <125% of federal poverty level 9.8 14.2 4.6 6.3 12.4 17.5 14.8 19.8 6.9 8.3 9.8 14.5
(0.3) (0.9) (0.3) (0.8) (0.9) (2.0) (0.8) (1.5) (0.5) (1.0) (0.7) (1.5)
Married currently 57.7 62.5 74.6 79.3 67.2 68.2 71.3 71.4 77.2 83.9 71.3 73.6
(0.5) (1.1) (0.9) (1.5) (1.6) (2.6) (1.3) (2.4) (1.2) (1.8) (1.3) (2.0)
High school education 86.0 79.0 94.1 88.8 89.5 80.4 60.5 46.3 79.3 70.8 75.1 59.9
(0.4) (0.9) (0.4) (1.2) (0.9) (2.1) (1.6) (2.9) (1.3) (2.9) (2.1) (2.2)
Race other than white 45.7 40.7 37.2 31.7 49.3 41.5 49.0 43.2 31.5 26.0 47.4 44.3
(1.0) (1.5) (1.2) (1.8) (1.6) (2.7) (1.6) (2.4) (1.4) (2.2) (1.8) (2.4)
Hispanic 11.8 4.9 4.7 2.0 5.4 1.6 11.0 4.4 3.3 0.9 3.4 0.6
(0.6) (0.9) (0.5) (0.5) (0.7) (0.5) (0.9) (1.2) (0.5) (0.4) (0.5) (0.2)
Means (SE)
Annual income in dollars 38,409 28,408 44,589 34,606 35,863 27,573 22,588 18,741 28,165 22,350 26,657 19,884
(440) (639) (723) (956) (836) (1,325) (632) (734) (796) (903) (723) (763)
Age 39.0 40.0 49.2 49.5 51.0 51.8 74.0 74.3 73.2 73.0 74.5 74.2
(0.1) (0.2) (0.2) (0.4) (0.3) (0.5) (0.2) (0.2) (0.2) (0.3) (0.2) (0.3)
Health status percentages (SE)
Self-rated physical health is fair/poor 8.6 12.6 6.5 9.2 20.7 30.4 24.2 31.6 15.1 18.0 26.6 31.0
(0.3) (0.7) (0.4) (1.2) (1.2) (2.4) (1.0) (2.0) (0.9) (1.7) (1.2) (2.0)
Self-rated mental health is fair/poor 4.3 6.1 2.6 2.8 9.5 10.1 9.9 14.7 4.9 6.7 8.8 9.7
(0.2) (0.4) (0.3) (0.5) (0.7) (1.5) (0.8) (1.8) (0.5) (1.5) (0.7) (1.4)
Had diagnoses in >2 clinical classification categories 29.1 32.6 34.5 36.6 52.8 54.1 62.0 68.7 59.4 60.3 78.0 75.6
(0.5) (0.9) (0.9) (1.8) (1.7) (2.5) (1.5) (2.0) (1.5) (3.3) (1.0) (1.7)
Means (SE)
# Clinical classification categories 3.7 4.0 4.0 4.2 5.6 5.8 6.4 6.7 6.0 5.9 7.7 7.5
(0.0) (0.1) (0.1) (0.1) (0.1) (0.2) (0.1) (0.2) (0.1) (0.2) (0.1) (0.2)
Insurance coverage percentages (SE)
Had private insurance 82.2 76.8 92.7 88.5 68.0 57.2 59.9 58.7 79.9 83.3 56.7 50.3
(0.5) (1.1) (0.5) (0.9) (1.5) (2.4) (1.5) (2.1) (1.1) (1.7) (1.3) (2.4)
Had Medicare 2.8 4.7 1.3 2.1 8.4 12.2 98.4 99.5 98.5 99.8 99.3 100
(0.2) (0.4) (0.2) (0.5) (0.7) (1.5) (0.3) (0.2) (0.3) (0.1) (0.2) (0.0)
Had Medicaid 5.9 7.8 1.8 2.6 8.2 9.0 14.5 13.8 3.1 3.1 4.7 4.2
(0.3) (0.6) (0.3) (0.6) (1.0) (1.7) (1.0) (1.9) (0.4) (1.0) (0.6) (0.8)
Had other insurance (inc. Public, CHAMPUS, Tricare) 1.0 1.2 6.4 6.0 18.0 14.8 2.9 2.8 4.4 5.0 10.1 9.2
(0.1) (0.2) (0.5) (0.9) (1.6) (1.9) (0.5) (0.6) (0.5) (0.9) (0.9) (1.3)
Uninsured all year 11.2 14.4 4.6 7.8 14.3 19.4 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0
(0.3) (0.8) (0.4) (0.8) (0.9) (1.8) (0.1) (0.1) (0.0) (0.0) (0.1) (0.0)
Percent using any health care 73.2 75.4 78.8 77.7 100 100 93.3 94.3 92.9 93.0 100 100
(0.4) (0.8) (0.7) (1.1) (0.0) (0.0) (0.6) (0.9) (0.7) (1.2) (0.0) (0.0)
Of men who used any health care, percentage (SE) who had
Any hospitalizations 4.9 7.3 4.8 6.2 15.4 15.3 17.8 20.8 13.8 13.8 23.2 27.1
(0.2) (0.4) (0.3) (0.8) (0.9) (1.4) (0.8) (1.5) (0.8) (1.3) (1.2) (1.7)
Any OP department visits 12.4 16.0 14.2 19.4 32.3 34.8 26.3 33.0 29.9 30.7 40.9 44.1
(0.3) (0.7) (0.6) (1.3) (1.1) (2.3) (1.1) (2.2) (1.3) (2.4) (1.3) (2.3)
Any ER visits 13.9 17.6 10.7 12.1 20.7 20.2 16.1 18.0 13.0 11.1 21.1 21.7
(0.3) (0.6) (0.5) (0.9) (0.9) (1.5) (0.8) (1.3) (0.7) (1.5) (1.1) (1.6)
Any office-based visits 75.2 77.2 79.1 80.3 89.9 90.5 92.3 92.4 92.1 90.2 96.4 95.8
(0.3) (0.6) (0.6) (1.2) (0.7) (1.3) (0.6) (0.9) (0.7) (1.3) (0.4) (0.7)
Any prescription medicines 67.5 71.7 70.5 69.3 89.7 90.4 91.4 92.3 86.8 84.2 98.1 98.1
(0.4) (0.7) (0.8) (1.6) (0.8) (1.2) (0.7) (1.3) (0.8) (2.1) (0.3) (0.5)

ER, emergency room; MEPS, Medical Expenditures Panel Survey; OP, outpatient.