Table 4.
Comparison of HINTS estimates of Internet use, health, and health communications characteristics with different weights and estimates from the NHIS and MEPS
| Comparisons with NHIS | HINTS 4 Cycle 1 | HINTS 4 Cycle 3 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base-weighted estimate | Nonresponse adjusted estimate | Final calibrated estimate | NHIS estimate | Base-weighted estimate | Nonresponse adjusted estimate | Final calibrated estimate | NHIS estimate | |
| Percent | ||||||||
| Access to Internet | 78.8 | 78.9 | 78.1 | 70.9* | 78.9 | 77.9 | 78.3 | 76.4 |
| Excellent, very good, or good health | 87.5 | 87.4 | 84.9 | 86.9 | 87.7 | 86.8 | 86.1 | 87.1 |
| Smoked 100+ cigarettes in life time | 40.0 | 40.0 | 38.5 | 40.9 | 43.2 | 43.1 | 44.5 | 39.8* |
| Never visited doctor | 15.5* | 15.5* | 21.2 | 19.0* | 14.8* | 15.3* | 19.4 | 19.6 |
| Looked for health information on the Internet (Internet users only) | 78.7 | 78.6 | 78.0 | 57.9* | 80.9 | 80.7 | 79.4 | 61.5* |
| Used Internet to communicate with doctor (Internet users only) | 21.9* | 21.9* | 19.1 | 8.0* | 33.3* | 32.4* | 29.7 | 9.4* |
| Comparisons with MEPS | Base-weighted estimate | Nonresponse adjusted estimate | Final calibrated estimate | MEPS estimate | Base-weighted estimate | Nonresponse adjusted estimate | Final calibrated estimate | MEPS estimate |
| Health professionals always explain things in a way you understand | 61.3 | 61.1 | 61.0 | 61.4 | 64.5* | 63.9* | 61.9 | NA |
| In past 12 months, health professionals always spend enough time with you | 46.3 | 46.2 | 44.6 | 52.4* | 50.0* | 49.5* | 46.3 | NA |
NOTE: The 2011 NHIS estimates are shown in the table for Cycle 1 and the 2013 NHIS estimates are shown for Cycle 3 for all characteristics except “Looked for health information on the Internet” and “Used Internet to communicate with doctor”. These variables are restricted to Internet users only. The NHIS did not include a web use question in 2011 so the table compares the Cycle 1 estimates for these characteristics to the 2012 NHIS estimates. Similarly the measure of access to the Internet from the NHIS for Cycle 1 is estimated from the 2012 NHIS. Significance tests are the result of tests comparing all other estimates with the final calibrated estimates from each cycle of HINTS.
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