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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Increase the proportion of adults with broadband internet — HC/HIT‑05 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), NIH/NCI

Baseline: 55.9 percent of adults aged 18 years and over reported having broadband access to the Internet in 2017

Target: 60.8 percent

Numerator
Number of adults aged 18 years and over who report accessing the Internet using Broadband such as DSL, cable or FiOS.
Denominator
Number of adults aged 18 years and over who have Internet access.
Target-setting method
Percentage point improvement
Target-setting method details
Percentage point improvement from the baseline using Cohen's h effect size of 0.10.
1
Target-setting method justification
Trend data were not available for this objective. A percentage point improvement was calculated using Cohen's h effect size of 0.1. This method was used because the Healthy People 2030 Workgroup Subject Matter Experts found a more conservative target appropriate due to challenges in access to broadband across all population groups. Significant disparities exist between rural communities and urban communities. The Healthy People 2020 objective was not comparable to the change in the 2017 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) question used for this objective.

Methodology

Questions used to obtain the national baseline data

(For additional information, please visit the data source page linked above.)

From the 2017 Health Information National Trends Survey:

Numerator:
When you use the Internet, do you access it through…
  1. A regular dial-up telephone line
  2. Broadband such as DSL, cable or FiOS
  3. A cellular network (e.g., phone, 3G/4G)
  4. A wireless network (Wi-Fi)
Denominator:
Do you ever go on-line to access the Internet or World Wide Web, or to send and receive e-mail?
  1. Yes
  2. No

Methodology notes

HINTS is an annual, cross-sectional survey of a nationally-representative sample of American adults that is used to assess the impact of the health information environment.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.

1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.