General Information:
*Note: This item was tested in German. This is an English translation of the original German wording. The translation does not correspond exactly to the wording in the English SHARE source questionnaire.*
Question Text:
Please look at SHOWCARD 32. Please specify the periods in which you needed a medical treatment or to see a doctor but you did not because you had to wait too long.
[Bitte sehen Sie sich Karte 32 an. Bitte nennen Sie die Zeiträume, in denen Sie auf einen Arztbesuch oder eine Behandlung verzichtet haben, weil Sie zu lange auf einen Termin warten mussten.]
Instruction:
INT: Bitte alle zutreffenden Antworten kodieren.
[INT: Please code all answers that apply.]
Answer Categories:
When I was younger than 15 years old. [Als ich bis 15 Jahre alt war]
When I was 16-25 years old. [Als ich 16 bis 25 Jahre alt war]
When I was 26-40 years old. [Als ich 26 bis 40 Jahre alt war]
When I was 41-55 years old. [Als ich 41 bis 55 Jahre alt war]
When I was 56-65 years old. [Als ich 56 bis 65 Jahre alt war]
When I was 66-75 years old. [Als ich 66 bis 75 Jahre alt war]
When I was older than 75. [Als ich älter als 75 Jahre war]
Recommendations:
Question: Question 4 did not seem to prompt the respondents to think about all appointments in their lives which they had had to give up and to classify them into the appropriate time category. We recommend rewording the question to make sure that the respondents do not only think of the most recent abandoned appointment or about one which they remember particularly well (also: compare the recommendation for question 2)
"Please look at SHOWCARD 32. Please specify the periods in which you needed a medical treatment or to see a doctor because the waiting time for an available appointment was too long. This question refers not to the waiting time in the actual waiting room, but to the waiting time for a doctor’s appointment. Again, please try to remember all doctors visits and medical treatments.
[Bitte sehen Sie sich Karte 32 an. Bitte nennen Sie die Zeiträume, in denen Sie auf einen Arztbesuch oder eine Behandlung verzichtet haben, weil die Wartezeit bis zum nächstmöglichen Termin beim Arzt zu lang war. Es geht hier nicht um die Wartezeit auf die Behandlung im Wartezimmer, sondern um die Terminvereinbarung für einen Arztbesuch. Bitte versuchen Sie wieder sich an alle Arztbesuche oder Behandlungen zu erinnern.]"
Answer categories: Again, the scale in the current version does not include the exact age of 15 years. Therefore we recommend changing the first answer category in “When I was younger than 16 years old. [Als ich bis 16 Jahre alt war.]"
General Probing, Specific Probing, Emergent Probing.
Findings for Question:
The question was asked to those four respondents who stated in question 3, that they had had a situation where they needed to give up a medical consultation or medical treatment because they had to wait too long (respondents 01, 02, 09, 10).
Here, two answers are illustrative. Respondent 01, who said that he was between 66 and 75 years old then, did not seem quite sure and reported four appointments in the last year. For him, the question did not clearly ask for all renounced appointments.
Respondent 02 chose the category ‘41-55 years’. When the interviewer asked some more questions, the respondent said that he was ‘not quite sure, it could have been earlier’. Furthermore, he stated that the situation could have also happened recently, ‘it’s not related to any particular age but, rather, to my inner attitude’ . Much like before, in question 3, he understands that that question does not refer to actual appointments which he had given up but to his general inner attitude i.e. that he might give up preventive medical check ups or try to find a different doctor when no appointment is possible within a short period of time.
Respondent 09 reported only one appointment which he had given up but had to think rather long about the specific time periods. Respondent 10 also only thought about the situation mentioned in question 3, when he had to wait for two hours in the waiting room despite having a fixed appointment, which resulted in giving up further preventive medical check ups. When the interviewer asked the respondent how many appointments he had given up, the respondent answered ‘13’ because ‘it depends on what you count in. If I had taken the doctor seriously back then, every other year since 1988. About 26 years, every other year. But I had never asked to be checked for adipose tumours again’ (respondent 10).
To find out if the respondents also considered dentist appointments, they were asked if they had also thought of dentist appointments in the preceding questions. Four respondents (respondents 01, 06, 08 and 10) admitted they had included dental appointments as well.
Question Topic:
Public health/ Visits to the doctor & treatments
Construct:
Age during the time of abandonment due to long waiting time
