Kaiser Permanente 2022 National Social Health Survey

Results from Kaiser Permanente's 2022 National Social Health Survey

Kaiser Permanente's 2022 National Social Health Survey is a follow up to our 2020 survey, in which we heard from a representative group more than 10,000 members nationwide about their social needs and desire for assistance from Kaiser Permanente. For the follow-up survey, we reached out to these same members to learn more about differences in social needs over time and across demographics and lines of business. We also conducted qualitative interviews with a small subset of members who completed both surveys.

We're excited to share final results in these 3 reports:

• Final report on quantitative results
   
• Final report on qualitative results
   
• Brief summary of combined quantitative and qualitative results

High-level results from the survey and interviews

More than 6,300 Kaiser Permanente members nationwide responded to the 2022 National Social Health Survey. Key quantitative findings include:

• More than 2 in 3 members (68%) have at least 1 social need, and 90% of members with Medicaid plans have at least 1 social need.
   
• Members with any social need are 6x more likely to report fair or poor mental/emotional health and 3x more likely to report fair or poor physical health.
   
• 61% of members with social needs are interested in receiving assistance from Kaiser Permanente.

Learn more in the final report on quantitative results.

We also conducted qualitative interviews with 48 members who completed both the 2020 and 2022 surveys. Key qualitative findings include: 

• Members have variable perceptions of the health system’s role in providing  social support — and many don't have a clear understanding of why health systems are screening for social needs.
   
• Members emphasized the importance of trusting relationships in their willingness to talk about social needs with their care teams. .

Learn more in the final report on qualitative results.

We are grateful to the thousands of Kaiser Permanente members across all 8 regional markets who completed the 2022 survey — and to the dozens of members who shared more detailed perspectives with us in interviews. Thanks also to the many SONNET and Kaiser Permanente collaborators who contributed their time and expertise to collecting data and summarizing results.

The quantitative survey was led by SONNET Associate Director, Meagan Brown, PhD, MPH. The qualitative interviews were led by SONNET collaborators Clarissa Hsu, PhD; David Mosen, PhD, MPH; and Dea Papajorgji-Taylor, MPH.

Contact SONNET

Email us at sonnet@kp.org to learn more about our work or request a consultation.