Skip to main content
. 2009 Oct 20;24(Suppl 3):534–541. doi: 10.1007/s11606-009-1074-x

Table 1.

Characteristics of the N = 884 Respondents from the PEW/RWJF Hispanic Healthcare Survey with Analyzable Patient Activation Measure (PAM) Scores*

  US born Foreign born† All Latinos
Sample size 241 % 643 % 884 %
Sex
 Female 52 47 49
 Male 48 53 51
Age (years)
 18–29 39 28 32
 30–49 38 48 44
 50–64 14 15 15
 ≥65 9 8 8
Education
 0–8 years 5 30 20
 9–11 years 16 20 18
 High school graduate or GED 32 28 29
 Some college 32 15 21
 College graduate or more 15 8 11
Household income
 $0–14,999 17 28 24
 $15,000–24,999 12 29 23
 $25,000–34,999 14 20 18
 $35,000–59,999 29 16 21
 ≥$60,000 28 8 15
Foreign born by time in US (years)
 0–5 18
 6–15 38
 ≥16 43
Health insurance
 Any 80 62 69
 None 20 38 31
Language of interview
 Spanish or mostly Spanish 19 88 62
 English or mix of English and Spanish 81 12 38
Verbal language proficiency‡
 Spanish better 7 77 50
 Bilingual 26 15 19
 English better 67 8 30
English reading proficiency§
 Very good or pretty good 94 31 55
 Just a little or not at all 6 69 45
Doctor visits, past year
 None 20 22 22
 1–2 32 44 40
 3–4 20 16 18
 5–7 9 8 9
 8 or more 18 9 13
Self-reported health status
 Excellent 17 11 13
 Very good 38 11 21
 Good 27 35 32
 Fair 14 37 28
 Poor 4 6 5

*All data except sample size are weighted percentages. Excluded are N = 9 persons who did not answer 7 or more of the 13 PAM scale items and N = 174 persons who answered strongly agree to all of the 13 PAM scale items; seeMethods

Foreign born includes US citizens who were born on the island of Puerto Rico

Verbal language proficiency is based on responses to the question, Would you say you can carry on a conversation in Spanish (English), both understanding and speaking—very well, pretty well, just a little, or not at all? Bilingual denotes persons who answered very well to both Spanish and English

§English reading proficiency is based on responses to the question, Would you say you can read a newspaper or book in English—very well, pretty well, just a little, or not at all?