DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38377.v1
title: Harvard School of Public Health/WBUR/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Poll: Sick in Massachusetts, 2012
title: Version 1

description: This catalog record includes detailed variable-level descriptions, enabling data discovery and comparison. The data are not archived at ICPSR. Users should consult the data owners (via the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research) directly for details on obtaining the data. This collection includes variable-level metadata of Sick in Massachusetts, a survey from the Harvard School of Public Health, WBUR Boston National Public Radio, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, conducted by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS). Topics covered in this survey include: Quality of health care Health insurance, insurance status, and care costs Reasons for health care quality problems Focus of doctor visits Reasons for rising health care costs Health care as good value Agreement with doctor statements Amount of doctors Attending routine check-ups Overnight stays in hospitals Satisfaction with hospital care Medical costs as reasonable Description of hospital stay Recent serious illness Satisfaction with medical care Interactions with health care professionals Impact of medical costs on family Receiving care every time it's needed Being turned away for health care Insurance premiums as financial problem Out-of-pocket medical costs Negotiating lower charges Problems paying for insurance Changing regular doctor Personal financial situation The data and documentation files for this survey are available through the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research [Roper #31092353]. Frequencies and summary statistics for the 162 variables from this survey are available through the ICPSR social science variable database and can be accessed from the Variables tab.
description: This study was intended to assess the attitudes and beliefs of Massachusetts' adult population towards healthcare and associated costs, with a particular emphasis on the perspective of those most reliant on the healthcare system.
description: The study collected a sample of adult respondents from across Massachusetts. An overlapping, dual-frame landline/cell phone design was used to address concerns about coverage, with RDD samples generated using Marketing Systems Group's GENESYS system. Additionally, a landline and cell phone oversample were used to ensure adequate representation of respondents identified as sick (respondents who reported experiencing either one overnight stay in a hospital or a serious illness, condition, injury, or disability that required medical care within the past 12 months). The interview questionnaire was developed by the Harvard School of Public Health research staff, with the SSRS project team consulting.
description: The study dataset contains weight factors that should be employed in any data analysis. Weights are typically used in an attempt to ensure that the survey sample more accurately represents the population. The weight variable in this study is WEIGHT. The baseweight was calculated as the product of a phone-status correction, which corrected for the likelihood of selection of respondents answering both landlines and cell phones, and the within-household selection correction, which assigned landline respondents from single-adult households a lower weight than households with two or more adults. Cell phone respondents also received the one-adult household weight as their adjustment. The baseweight was applied to the sample, which then underwent two stages of iterative proportional fitting based on the approximate population distribution of Massachusetts adults presented in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2011 March Supplement to the Current Population Survey. The weights were then truncated to a more limited range to control for variance.
description: Response Rates: The response rate for this study was 20%.
description: Sample of 1,001 adult respondents
description: Datasets: DS1: Harvard School of Public Health/WBUR/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Poll: Sick in Massachusetts, 2012
description: Adult residents of Massachusetts. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); telephone interviewPlease visit the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research website for more information on the 2012 Sick in Massachusetts poll.