Response error in reporting dental coverage by older Americans in the health and retirement study.

The aim of this research was to analyze the inconsistency in responses to survey questions within the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) regarding insurance coverage of dental services. Self-reports of dental coverage in the dental services section were compared with those in the insurance section of the 2002 HRS to identify inconsistent responses. Logistic regression identified characteristics of persons reporting discrepancies and assessed the effect of measurement error on dental coverage coefficient estimates in dental utilization models.

Regression-based sampling for persons with high health expenditures: evaluating accuracy and yield with the 1997 MEPS.

Background: Given the high concentration of health care expenditures among a relatively small percentage of the population, the 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey was designed to learn more about these high expenditure individuals by oversampling them.

Objective: Oversampling high expenditure individuals enables more precise estimation of what the nation's health care dollar buys and who pays it. It also enhances the ability to discern the causes of high health care expenses and the characteristics of the individuals who incur them.