Oakland University Researchers Have Provided New Data on Men’s Health (Confidence in Understanding Health Insurance and Challenges Paying Medical Bills Among Men in the United States)

2020 AUG 28 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Data detailed on men’s health have been presented. According to news reporting from Oakland University by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Although the number of men with health insurance has increased, men are less likely to utilize health services than females, and experience difficulty in paying medical bills. Understanding the details of health insurance can be challenging and the lack of understanding can have financial consequences.”

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Oakland University: “This study, guided by Andersen’s model of health-care utilization, assessed the relationship between confidence level in understanding health insurance terms and difficulty in paying medical bills among American men. Data were drawn from the Health Reform Monitoring Survey, 2015-2016. The study included 6,643 men aged between 18 and 64. Descriptive statistics examined participants’ difficulty in paying medical bills by predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics, and by confidence in understanding health insurance terms. A modified Poisson regression analysis examined the association between difficulty in paying medical bills, confidence in understanding health insurance terms score, and predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics. An increase in confidence in understanding health insurance terms score was associated with significantly lower reported difficulty in paying medical bills (PR = .98; 95% CI = [.97-.99]; p = .002). Participants with a college degree or higher were less likely to report difficulty in paying their medical bills compared to participants with less than a high school degree (PR = .72; 95% CI = [.56-.92]; p = .009).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “A better understanding of health insurance might prevent men from experiencing difficulties in paying medical bills. Additional research should be performed to understand the relationship between the level of confidence in understanding health insurance, knowledge level of health insurance terms, use of health insurance, and their impact on difficulty in paying medical bills.”

For more information on this research see: Confidence in Understanding Health Insurance and Challenges Paying Medical Bills Among Men in the United States. American Journal of Men’s Health, 2020,14. (American Journal of Men’s Health - http://journals.sagepub.com/home/jmh). The publisher for American Journal of Men’s Health is SAGE Publishing.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/1557988320943359.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Caress A. Dean, Department of Public and Environmental Wellness, School of Health Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA. Additional authors for this research include Jacqueline Wiltshire, Echu Liu, M. Ahinee Amamoo, Edlin Garcia Colato, Keith Elder.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)