A survey of health disparities in Medicare beneficiaries with and without communication impairments

The purpose of this study was to investigate the determinants of access to and satisfaction with health care from Medicare participants with and without communication impairments. The Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Services Use was employed to examine the relationship between predisposing characteristics, enabling resources, and need variables and satisfaction with health care. Specifically, gender, degree of education, race, marital status, and residency served as predisposing characteristic variables. Enabling resource variables included income level and source of care, while health status and communication impairment served as need variables. Raw data for the study was obtained from the 2004 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) Satisfaction with care was assessed using ten of the MCBS questions probing satisfaction in a number of areas related to health care. The data were analyzed using logistic regression. Results indicated that individuals with communication impairment demonstrated some level of dissatisfaction with access to and satisfaction with quality of health care. Each of the ten MCBS satisfaction questions was significantly associated (p >.05) with at least one of the communication variables.