Amy Heller, PhD, MPH¹, Sunyna S Williams, PhD¹, and Gerald A Adler, PhD². (1) Division of Beneficiary Analysis, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 7500 Security Blvd, S1-13-05, Woodlawn, MD 21244, 410-8786-9234, aheller2@cms.hhs.gov, (2) ORDI, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 7500 Security Blvd, C3-19-08, woodlawn, MD 21244, 410-786-7938, gadler@cms.hhs.gov

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) conducts a range of educational activities to provide people with Medicare with information to make educated health care choices, as well as, conducts several types of research activities designed to assess the effectiveness of these activities. Research has demonstrated that greater involvement in personal health care decision-making can lead to improved health outcomes. Additionally, CMS seeks to encourage people with Medicare to become active health care consumers and to support them in their efforts to become more pro-active.

This analyses uses data from one cohort of the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), a national representative sample of people with Medicare including approximately 10,0000 in-person respondents. The goal of these analyses is to identify groups or segments of people with Medicare who vary in terms of information-seeking, attitudes and behaviors related to health and health care.

Psychometric analysis of a patient activation scale of the MCBS identified five factor subscales—patient-physician relationship, perceived communication assertiveness, information-seeking behavior, self-efficacy for finding and using health information, and ability to share responsibility for medical decision-making. Cluster analysis based on those five subscales identified unique segments of beneficiaries who varied not only with regard to subscale scores, but more important, with regard to a wide array of health-related variables in the dataset. The findings can be used by CMS to target different segments and to tailor educational materials and approaches for each segment accordingly.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Define the benefits of segmenting the audience for educational materials.
• Assess the relevance of the five-factor patient activation scales.
• Develop an awareness of the educational needs of people with Medicare.

Keywords: Health Education Strategies, Medicare

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.