A Program To Measure the Impact of Multiphasic Health Testing on Health Differentials between Poverty and Nonpoverty Groups

Periodic automated multiphasic health testing (AMHT) for poverty and nonpoverty groups enrolled in HIP is being integrated with an action program that utilizes paramedical personnel and the medical care resources within the Plan. The primary question under investigation is whether through AMHT and the activities generated by it, the anticipated gaps in health status and health-related behavior and understanding between the two groups can be narrowed. Control groups have been established to provide the basis for judging whether observed changes are independent of the project's activities. Feasibility, cost, and manpower requirements are also to be determined for a system in which physician referrals are limited to patients who meet specified criteria. Major sources of information for the study groups include a battery of tests differing moderately from those included in other AMHT programs, and a health inventory that covers, in addition to questions usually found in a health history, a broad range of items concerned with patterns of health care, practices, attitudes, disability, and limitations of function. Outcome measures will be of two types— those that might be inferred from information about health behavior and those that reflect a change in health status.