2017 OMAS Survey

2017 OMAS Survey

The 2017 Ohio Medicaid Assessment Survey (OMAS) is a critical resource for assessing health statuses, health care access and service utilization, and select behavioral risks for Ohioans, with an emphasis on current Medicaid members and adults who are potentially eligible to receive Medicaid insurance. The 2017 OMAS is the 7th iteration of the series and builds upon prior surveys to identify trend changes for Ohio's Medicaid, Medicaid-eligible, and non-Medicaid populations. It is a cross-sectional random probability survey of non-institutionalized Ohio adults ages 19 years and older and proxy interviews of children ages 18 years and younger. The 2023 survey had a sample size of 39,711 adult interviews and 9,202 child interviews (via proxy adults).

The 2017 OMAS is an Ohio Medicaid Technical Assistance and Policy Program (MedTAPP) sponsored by the Ohio Department of Medicaid and The Ohio State University. The survey vendor is RTI International, a non-profit organization that provides research and technical services. 

Archived Content Notice

The resources on this page are for historical records, research, and reference and are no longer maintained, altered, and/or updated as of April 23, 2026. Some content may not meet accessibility standards. To request content in an accessible format, contact GRCAccess@osumc.edu

Survey Data

Three datasets and associated documentation are available:

  • The public use file (PUF) contains data collected from the adult and child questionnaires.
  • The public analytics file (PAF) contains analysis-ready variables constructed from the PUF. These variables account for skip patterns, allow for easy calculations, and provide clearly labelled categorical variables. Details on how each variable is constructed can be found in the associated reference book.
  • The research use file (RUF) contains data included in the PUF, in addition to a zip-code level identifier. It also contains select variables relating to the administration of data collection and some frame variables.

To download the OMAS PUF or PAF, please use our PUF/PAF request form. Researchers interested in obtaining the RUF can submit a request for access which will be reviewed by GRC and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

Please note that the 2017 PUF was updated in April 2023 to address updates to the way that derived race-ethnicity variables were coded and how health insurance variables were imputed to better align with updates that were made as part of the 2021 OMAS data. Survey weights were also updated as part of the revision. If you utilized the earlier version of the file, your estimates may be slightly different, and we encourage you to re-download the file for analysis. 

2017 Datasets Documentation

2017 OMAS Questionnaire

Design and Methods

The 2017 OMAS was structured as a stratified random digit dial dual-frame (cell phone and landline phone) complex designed (multiple strata) telephone survey that enables analyses at the state, Medicaid Managed Care Plan region, and select county levels. Survey weighting was performed in stages at the county, regional, state, oversample, and cell phone levels to provide robust analyses with inferential certainty. It excluded institutional settings such as university dorms, incarceration facilities, assisted living facilities, hospitals, and businesses. The selection method ensured a reliable sample of residents.

2017 Methodology Report (PDF)

OMAS County Types

OMAS assigns counties to one of four mutually exclusive county types – rural Appalachian, rural non-Appalachian, metropolitan, and suburban. OMAS defines these county types in accordance with federal definitions, as follows: (1) Appalachia is defined using the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) standard; (2) Metropolitan is defined using US Census Bureau definitions incorporating urban areas and urban cluster parameters; (3) rural is defined by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), excluding Appalachian counties; (4) suburban is defined by the US Census Bureau and is characterized as a mixed-use or predominantly residential area within commuting distance of a city or metropolitan area. 

These designations were originally set by the Ohio Department of Health in 1997 for the 1998 Ohio Family Health Survey (OFHS) and were slightly adjusted in 2004 and again adjusted in 2010 to include Ashtabula and Trumbull counties as Appalachian, in accordance with a federal re-designation. Guidance for these categories was provided by National Research Council’s Committee on Population and Demography staff – for original designations and revisions.

Research and Reports

Below is a list of briefs, chartbooks, and presentations that address key findings from the 2017 OMAS. The analyses completed were exploratory and are meant to be descriptive in nature. Because they were not driven by specific research questions, no statistical testing was conducted, and the precision of provided estimates is assessed using confidence intervals. The provided confidence intervals should not be used to conduct “ad-hoc” testing to compare differences between groups. For any research using data from the 2017 OMAS, a research plan should be specified that includes primary hypotheses and corresponding statistical analysis strategies.
 

Briefs

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