Does providing consumer health information affect self-reported medical utilization? Evidence from the Healthwise Communities Project

OBJECTIVE. To determine whether providing health information to residents o f Boise ID had an effect on their self-reported medical utilization. RESEARCH DESIGN. The Healthwise Communities Project (HCP) evaluation follow ed a quasi-experimental design. SUBJECTS. Random households in metropolitan zig codes were mailed questionn aires before and offer the HCP. A total of 5,909 surveys were returned. MEASURES. The dependent variable was self-reported number of visits la the doctor in the past year: A difference-in-differences estimator was used to assess the intervention's community-level effect. We also assessed the inte rvention's effect on the variance of self-report utilization. RESULTS. Boise residents had a higher adjusted odds of entering care (OR = 1.27, 95% CI 0.88, 1.85) and 0.1 more doctor visits compared with residents in the control cities; however, far boot outcomes, the effects were small and not significant. Although the means changed little, the data suggest th at the variante of utilization in Boise decreased. CONCLUSIONS. The HCP had a small effect on overall self-reported utilizatio n. Although the findings were not statistically significant, a posthoc powe r analysis revealed that the study was underpowered to detect effects of th is magnitude. It may be possible to achieve larger effects by enrolling mot ivated people into a clinical Trial. However, these data suggest That popul ation-based efforts to provide health information have a small effect on se lf-reported utilization.