140 – Analysis of Health Quality in Survey and Administrative Data
Healthcare Survey Analytic and Data Quality Enrichments Achieved Through Consolidation
Steven B. Cohen
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
The quality and content of national population-based socioeconomic and health care surveys are enhanced through linkage to surveys of associated medical providers, businesses, and facilities. Analytical capacity is dramatically enhanced through their connectivity to existing secondary data sources at higher levels of aggregation and via direct matches to additional health and socioeconomic measures acquired for the same sample units from other sources of survey or administrative data. These administrative databases also may serve as sampling frames to facilitate a cost-efficient sample selection. These designs improve data collection strategies to meet target response rates, achieve reductions in nonresponse bias, and enhance data quality and analytical capacity. They permit extensions in longitudinal analyses and permit methodological studies to assess the accuracy of household reported data. The design features and analytic enhancements are illustrated with examples drawn from national health-related surveys with coalesced designs. They include the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)and NHIS. Design limitations also are discussed.