A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups

This study is a part of a three stage pursuit to examine and to comprehend the relationship between the resources available, the apparent utilization patterns of those resources by the population being served, and the selected characteristics of the populations utilizing and not utilizing the prevai...

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Main Author: Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani
Language:English
Published: 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20719
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spelling ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-207192018-01-05T17:40:42Z A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani Medical care --Utilization Physicians --utilization Socioeconomic Factors Physician services utilization This study is a part of a three stage pursuit to examine and to comprehend the relationship between the resources available, the apparent utilization patterns of those resources by the population being served, and the selected characteristics of the populations utilizing and not utilizing the prevailing medical care system. The first stage of the research involves the examination of the existing patterns of medical care utilization by socioeconomic status groups. Cross-national Comparison of Physician Utilization by the Socioeconomic Status Groups is the pilot research for the first stage and both modifies and develops the methodology for this type of research and also examines the physician utilization patterns of a population in well defined basic measurements — in this case the socioeconomic status index, the diagnosed disease, and the number of physician contacts. The comparison of the physician utilization patterns of socioeconomic status groups in respect to the prevailing medical care delivery system necessarily involves cross-area studies at least at regional level, but most likely cross-national comparisons as well. This study used already collected data, nevertheless, primary data, which had been collected and partly analysed in the World Health Organization/International Collaborative Study of Medical Care Utilization. The data came from twelve geographical areas, altogether from seven countries, and provided documented research material on the surveyed respondents' social characteristics, standard diagnostic procedures, and standard definitions of the interactions between the users and the prevailing medical care delivery systems. The social characteristics were used separately, but in a standardized way, in order to derive socioeconomic status groups in each area; the diseases distributions were examined in relationship to the socioeconomic status groups, and the physician utilization patterns were related to the socioeconomic status groups while controlling for the distributions of selected diseases, after which the study areas were compared to each other in terms of the exhibited relationships between the physician utilization and the socioeconomic status groups. The physician utilization patterns were found to vary only little from one area to another, however, consistently, to warrant the use of derived information for the second stage of the research. Physician utilizations were very weakly correlated to the socioeconomic status and these correlations were not substantially effected by the selection of the controlling disease, i.e., they were consistent. Medicine, Faculty of Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of Graduate 2010-02-21T19:54:37Z 2010-02-21T19:54:37Z 1977 Text Thesis/Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20719 eng For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Medical care --Utilization
Physicians --utilization
Socioeconomic Factors
Physician services utilization
spellingShingle Medical care --Utilization
Physicians --utilization
Socioeconomic Factors
Physician services utilization
Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani
A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
description This study is a part of a three stage pursuit to examine and to comprehend the relationship between the resources available, the apparent utilization patterns of those resources by the population being served, and the selected characteristics of the populations utilizing and not utilizing the prevailing medical care system. The first stage of the research involves the examination of the existing patterns of medical care utilization by socioeconomic status groups. Cross-national Comparison of Physician Utilization by the Socioeconomic Status Groups is the pilot research for the first stage and both modifies and develops the methodology for this type of research and also examines the physician utilization patterns of a population in well defined basic measurements — in this case the socioeconomic status index, the diagnosed disease, and the number of physician contacts. The comparison of the physician utilization patterns of socioeconomic status groups in respect to the prevailing medical care delivery system necessarily involves cross-area studies at least at regional level, but most likely cross-national comparisons as well. This study used already collected data, nevertheless, primary data, which had been collected and partly analysed in the World Health Organization/International Collaborative Study of Medical Care Utilization. The data came from twelve geographical areas, altogether from seven countries, and provided documented research material on the surveyed respondents' social characteristics, standard diagnostic procedures, and standard definitions of the interactions between the users and the prevailing medical care delivery systems. The social characteristics were used separately, but in a standardized way, in order to derive socioeconomic status groups in each area; the diseases distributions were examined in relationship to the socioeconomic status groups, and the physician utilization patterns were related to the socioeconomic status groups while controlling for the distributions of selected diseases, after which the study areas were compared to each other in terms of the exhibited relationships between the physician utilization and the socioeconomic status groups. The physician utilization patterns were found to vary only little from one area to another, however, consistently, to warrant the use of derived information for the second stage of the research. Physician utilizations were very weakly correlated to the socioeconomic status and these correlations were not substantially effected by the selection of the controlling disease, i.e., they were consistent. === Medicine, Faculty of === Population and Public Health (SPPH), School of === Graduate
author Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani
author_facet Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani
author_sort Vohlonen, Ilkka Juhani
title A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
title_short A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
title_full A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
title_fullStr A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
title_full_unstemmed A cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
title_sort cross-national comparison of physician utilization by the socioeconomic status groups
publishDate 2010
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20719
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