Time period

National healthcare estimates from MEPS for the 2005 NHDR were derived from the 2002 MEPS HC survey, including the Self-Administered Questionnaire (SAQ), the Child Health and Preventive Care section, and another self-administered survey about diabetes care.

The 2002 SAQ was a supplement to the MEPS HC and was completed in late 2002 and early 2003. It included: Health care quality measures taken from the health plan version of CAHPS®, an AHRQ-sponsored family of survey instruments designed to measure quality of care from the consumer's perspective; general health questions; attitudes about health questions; and health status questions as measured by the SF-12 and the EuroQol 5D.

The Child Health and Preventive Care section was part of the regular MEPS HC interview that took place during the later half of 2002 and early 2003. It included: health care quality measures taken from the health plan version of CAHPS®; the Children with Special Health Care Needs Screener questions; children's general health status as measured by several questions from the General Health Subscale of the Child Health Questionnaire; Columbia Impairment Scale questions about possible child behavioral problems; and child preventive care questions. The CAHPS® questions and the Children with Special Health Care Needs Screener questions had been in a Parent-Administered Questionnaire in 2000, and may produce slightly different estimates in 2002 than in 2000 due to the change in mode from a self-administered parent questionnaire in 2000 to an interviewer administered questionnaire since 2001.

A third supplement to the MEPS HC was a self-administered questionnaire given out to persons identified with diabetes concerning the care they received in the treatment of their diabetes.

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