Development and Preliminary Testing of the Health in Community Survey

• Published in: Journal of health care for the poor and underserved Vol. 26; no. 1; pp. 134 - 153
• Main Authors: Iezzoni, Lisa I, Barreto, Esteban A, Wint, Amy J, Hong, Clemens S. K, Donelan, Karen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Johns Hopkins University Press 01.02.2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Chronic Disease - epidemiology; Chronic illnesses; Cognitive interviews; Community health services; Community-based programs; Disabled; Female; Food; Food resources; Health care; Health care policy; Health Services Needs and Demand; Health Status Disparities; Health Surveys; Healthy food; Hospitals; Humans; Integrated care; Interviews; Male; Massachusetts; Medical personnel; Medical research; Medical service; Middle Aged; Patient satisfaction; Patients; Perceptions; Physicians; Polls & surveys; Primary care; Quality of care; Social Determinants of Health; Social factors; Studies; Surveys; Tests; Transportation; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1049-2089; 1548-6869; 1548-6869
• DOI: 10.1353/hpu.2015.0023

Objectives . Develop and pilot test the Health in Community Survey (HCS), to collect patients’ perceptions of care integration between traditional care providers and community-based services that address social determinants of health. Research design . Interviews of working-age, English-or Spanish-speaking patients with multiple chronic conditions to identify survey domains; cognitive interviews and pilot test of HCS Version 1. Results . Preliminary interview subjects identified diverse care concerns. From these findings, we designed six HCS domains. Cognitive interviews identified problems relating to patients’ perceptions about limited function and disability. Nearly one-third of pilot test subjects reported they did not definitely have enough resources for food, transportation, doctor and hospital bills, and medications; 41.6% said their clinicians only sometimes or never knew about their resource problems. Conclusions . Although it requires further validation, the HCS offers insights into patients’ perceptions of care integration between traditional health care providers and services addressing social determinants of health.