Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: March 2013
This Kaiser Health Tracking Poll was designed and analyzed by public opinion researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation led by Mollyann Brodie, Ph.D., including Liz Hamel, Claudia Deane, Sarah Cho, and Bianca DiJulio. The survey was conducted March 5-10, 2013, among a nationally representative random digit dial telephone sample of 1,204 adults ages 18 and older, living in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii (note: persons without a telephone could not be included in the random selection process). Computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted by landline (602) and cell phone (602, including 315 who had no landline telephone) were carried out in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI). Both the landline and cell phone samples were provided by Survey Sampling International, LLC. For the landline sample, respondents were selected by asking for the youngest adult male or female currently at home based on a random rotation. If no one of that gender was available, interviewers asked to speak with the youngest adult of the opposite gender. For the cell phone sample, interviews were conducted with the person who answered the phone.
The combined landline and cell phone sample was weighted to balance the sample demographics to match estimates for the national population data from the Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) on sex, age, education, race, Hispanic origin, nativity (for Hispanics only), and region along with data from the 2010 Census on population density. The sample was also weighted to match current patterns of telephone use using data from the January-June 2012 National Health Interview Survey. The weight takes into account the fact that respondents with both a landline and cell phone have a higher probability of selection in the combined sample and also adjusts for the household size for the landline sample. All statistical tests of significance account for the effect of weighting. Weighted and unweighted values for key demographic variables are shown in the table below.
| Sample Demographics | ||
| Unweighted | Weighted | |
| Gender | ||
| Male | 46.5% | 48.4% |
| Female | 53.5% | 51.6% |
| Age | ||
| 18-24 | 8.4% | 13.2% |
| 25-34 | 12.0% | 16.5% |
| 35-44 | 13.9% | 17.1% |
| 45-54 | 19.9% | 18.6% |
| 55-64 | 20.8% | 16.9% |
| 65+ | 25.0% | 17.9% |
| Education | ||
| HS Graduate or Less | 30.1% | 41.0% |
| Some College/Assoc. Degree | 26.6% | 31.2% |
| College Grad. | 43.4% | 27.8% |
| Race/Ethnicity | ||
| White/not Hispanic | 72.6% | 67.3% |
| Black/not Hispanic | 11.5% | 11.7% |
| Hisp – US born | 5.1% | 6.9% |
| Hisp – born outside | 5.4% | 7.2% |
| Other/not Hispanic | 5.4% | 6.8% |
| Party Identification | ||
| Democrat | 34.4% | 33.2% |
| Independent | 30.7% | 31.0% |
| Republican | 23.3% | 22.3% |
| Other | 7.6% | 8.8% |
The margin of sampling error including the design effect for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For results based on subgroups, the margin of sampling error may be higher. Sample sizes and margin of sampling errors 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.
The response rate calculated based on the American Association of Public Opinion Research’s Response Rate 3 formula was 11 percent for the landline sample and 13 percent for the cell phone sample.