The Swiss Health Insurance Literacy Measure (HILM-CH): Measurement Properties and Cross-Cultural Validation

Table 1 Sample characteristics

	Total		German		French		Italian
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	P
Total	6036	100	4274	70.81	1409	23.33	353	5.85
Age (mean, SD)	49.62	13.74	50.08	13.80	48.87	13.69	46.98	12.75	0.037
Gender									0.118
Male	3016	49.97	2126	49.7	694	49.3	195	55.3
Female	3020	50.03	2148	50.3	714	50.7	158	44.7
Swiss nationality^a									<0.01*
Yes	5503	91.17	3995	93.5	1257	89.2	251	71.1
No	533	8.83	279	6.5	152	10.8	102	28.9
Education^b									<0.01*
Primary/Secondary	3846	63.72	2562	65.63	585	59.00	404	59.54
Tertiary	2190	36.28	1341	34.37	597	41.00	274	40.46
Doctor visits last 12 months (mean, SD)	3.92	5.31	3.95	5.26	3.87	5.41	3.77	5.51	0.597
Chronic conditions									<0.01*
Yes	2307	38.2	1669	39.0	536	38.1	102	29.0
No	3607	59.8	2527	59.1	839	59.6	240	67.9
Don’t know	122	2.0	78	1.8	33	2.3	11	3.1
Yearly deductible									<0.01*
300 CHF	2331	38.6	1665	71.4	535	23.0	131	5.6
500 CHF	601	10.1	374	62.2	195	32.4	32	5.3
1 000 CHF	221	3.7	173	78.3	38	17.2	10	4.5
1 500 CHF	390	6.5	277	71	97	24.9	16	4.1
2 000 CHF	217	3.6	170	78.3	39	18	8	3.7
2 500 CHF	2159	35.8	1523	70.6	484	22.4	152	7.0
Don’t know	117	1.9	92	2.2	20	1.4	5	1.4
Type of health plan^c									<0.01*
Basic	1114	18.4	723	16.9	312	22.2	78	22.1
HMO	516	8.5	455	10.6	42	3.0	19	5.3
Telemedicine	959	15.9	747	17.5	163	11.	49	13.9
Family doctor	3174	52.6	2204	51.6	795	56.5	174	49.2
Other	107	1.8	64	1.5	34	2.5	9	2.5
Don't know	167	2.8	81	1.9	62	4.4	25	7.0
Out-of-pocket expenditures									0.239
None	609	10.1	444	10.4	125	8.9	40	11.4
< 300 CHF	1543	25.6	1106	25.9	337	23.9	99	28.2
300 - 499 CHF	1184	19.6	817	19.1	302	21.5	65	18.4
500 - 999 CHF	1215	20.1	846	19.8	307	21.8	62	17.6
1000 - 1499 CHF	602	10.0	421	9.9	144	10.2	36	10.3
1500 - 2499 CHF	296	4.9	221	5.2	55	3.9	20	5.6
≥ 2500 CHF	264	4.4	192	4.5	59	4.2	13	3.7
Don’t know	323	5.4	227	5.3	79	5.6	17	4.9

Note: Reported numbers depict the weighted characteristics of the total sample and per linguistic region (German, French and Italian).
^aIndividuals holding the Swiss nationality hold it from birth or obtained it after ten years of residency. Individuals who do not have the Swiss nationality do not have the Swiss passport but an official document proving that they are residents.
^bTertiary education refers to respondents who obtained a degree from a University of Applied Sciences (“Höhere Fach- oder Berufsausbildung” and “Fachhochschule”), a college of education (“Pädagogische Hochschule”), a Swiss University, or a Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (“Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule”). All other (un)completed education levels were assigned to Primary and Secondary education.
^cType of health plans: “basic” refers to a plan with a free choice of practitioner. “HMO” (health managed organization), “Telemedicine,” “family doctor,” and “other” refer to a type of plan where the first point of contact (gatekeeper) is different and specific. Individuals who do not comply with the first point of the contact face extra costs.
^*P<0.01
Source: Swiss Health Insurance Literacy Survey 2021.

ISSN: 1472-6963