KFF Health Tracking Poll - October 2021: Home And Community Based Services And Seniors’ Health Care Needs

The KFF Health Tracking Poll was conducted in English and Spanish with a nationally representative sample of 1,146 U.S. adults aged 18 or older, including an oversample of 474 adults ages 65 and older. The survey was conducted online and via phone from September 23-October 4, 2021, combining sample from two online probability-based panels and telephone samples recruited from random digit dialing (RDD). Sampling, data collection, weighting and tabulation were managed by SSRS of Glen Mills, PA in close collaboration with Kaiser Family Foundation researchers. The KFF team developed the questionnaire, analyzed the data and contributed financing for the survey.

Panel surveys were conducted through two online panels: (1) The SSRS Opinion Panel, a representative probability-based panel of U.S. adults ages 18 and older, recruited using the SSRS Omnibus poll (a weekly dual-frame RDD telephone survey) and through address-based sampling (ABS) (n=939). (2) The IPSOS KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel of U.S. adults ages 18 and older recruited through ABS targeting panelist (n=85). In order to reach adults 65 and older, a group less likely to be reached through an online panel, as well as those who do not have access to the internet, 122 interviews were completed by telephone, (including 79 among those who had previously indicated they do not use the internet).

The combined online, cell phone, and landline sample was weighted to match the sample demographics to estimates for the national population. A multi-stage weighting process was used to adjust for the fact that not all survey respondents were selected with the same probabilities and to account for systematic non-response. In the first weighting stage, adjustments were made regarding the probabilities of selection to the two web panels, and for probability of selection and non-response to the telephone callback samples. Each of these surveys were probability samples of the U.S. adult population that were weighted to the Census Bureau’s March 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS), by gender, age, race/ethnicity, education, and Census region. The data were also weighted to match internet usage metrics based on the U.S. Census’s 2019 American Community Survey, civic engagement metrics based on the September 2019 CPS Volunteering and Civic Life Supplement, and to match party identification within age groups from previous KFF RDD samples.

All statistical tests of significance account for the effect of weighting.

The margin of sampling error including the design effect for the full sample is plus or minus 4 percentage points. Numbers of respondents and margins of sampling error for key subgroups are shown in the table below. For results based on other subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Sample sizes and margins of sampling error for other subgroups are available by request. Note that sampling error is only one of many potential sources of error in this or any other public opinion poll. Kaiser Family Foundation public opinion and survey research is a charter member of the Transparency Initiative of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.