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Table 2 Description of dependent and predicting variables

From: Social health insurance, healthcare utilization, and costs in middle-aged and elderly community-dwelling adults in China

 

Categories

Indicators/survey questions

Dependent variable

  

Healthcare underutilization

 Outpatient

Reported non-use of outpatient/no reported non-use of outpatient

Questions: Have you been ill in the last month? What the main reason for not seeking medical treatment?

 Inpatient

Reported non-use of inpatient/no reported non-use of inpatient

Question: In the past year, did a doctor suggest that you needed inpatient care but you did not get hospitalized?

 Dentist

No seen the dentist/ seen the dentist

Question: Have you seen a dentist for dental care in the last year?

 Early dismissal from the hospital

Reported dismissal from the hospital/ No reported dismissal from the hospital

Question: Why did you want to leave the hospital before you were recovered?

Reason for health underutilization

 Reason for not seeking outpatient

Illness is not serious/No time/ Hospital quality poor/ other

Question: What’s the main reason for not seeking medical treatment?

 Reason for not seeking inpatient

Poor/Not willing to go to hospital/ Hospital quality poor/other

Question: What’s the main reason for not seeking hospitalization?

 Reason for early dismissal from the hospital

Can’t recover from illness/ Poor/ Hospital quality poor/ other

Question: Why did you want to leave the hospital before you were recovered?

Healthcare utilization

 The number of outpatient visits

 

Questions: Which types of medical facilities have you visited in the last month for outpatient treatment? How many times did you visit these types of medical facilities during the last month?

 The number of hospitalizations

 

Question: How many times have you received inpatient care during the last year?

 The number of dentist visits

 

Question: How many times have you received dental care during the last year?

 Length of hospital stay

 

Question: How many nights were you hospitalized?

Healthcare costs

 Total medication costs

 

Question: What is the approximate total cost of treat yourself during the last month? (Consumed medicine, health supplement, health care equipment etc.)

 OOP medication costs

 

Question: How much did you pay out-of-pocket?

 Total outpatient costs

 

Question: How much did all the outpatient visit cost during the last month?

 OOP outpatient costs

 

Question: How much did you pay out of pocket, after reimbursement from insurance?

 Total inpatient costs

 

Question: What was the total medical cost of hospitalization?(Only include the fees paid to the hospital)

 OOP inpatient costs

 

Question: How much did you pay out of pocket for the hospitalization, after reimbursement from insurance?

 Total dentist costs

 

Question: What was the total medical cost for all the dental care in the last year?

 OOP dentist costs

 

Question: How much did you pay out of pocket, after reimbursement from insurance?

Independent variables

 Health insurance

0 No insurance/1 UEMI/2 URMI/3 NCMI/4 Other

Question: Are you the policy holder/primary beneficiary of any of the types of health insurance?

 Sex

Male/Female

 

 Age in years

≤55/56–65/> 65

 

 Educational level

Less than lower secondary/upper secondary & vocational training/tertiary

Question: What’s the highest level of education in last wave?

 Marital status

Not-married/Married

Question: What is your marital status?

 Health self-reported

Excellent/Very good/Good/Fair/Poor

Question: Would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor?

 Income level

≤1920¥/1920–10,100¥/10,100–276,223¥/≥27,622–53,520¥/> 53,520¥

Yearly household income divided by number of household numbers; 1st household-member with a weight of 1, all following household members with a weight of 0.5

 Live in Urban or Rural

Urban/rural