The aim of this analysis was to assess the impact of chronic back pain and psychological distress on the utilization of primary and secondary levels of care in the ambulatory health care sector in Austria - a country without a gatekeeping system. Additionally, we aimed to determine if the joint effect of chronic back pain and psychological distress was higher than the impact of the sum of the t...

GIS and related spatial analysis methods provide a set of tools for describing and understanding the changing spatial organization of health care, for examining its relationship to health outcomes and access, and for exploring how the delivery of health care can be improved. This review discusses recent literature on GIS and health care. It considers the use of GIS in analyzing health care need...

This paper examines the patterns and determinants of maternal health care utilization across different social settings in South India: in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) carried out during 1992-93 across most states in India are used. Results show that utilization of maternal health care services is highest in Ke...

INTRODUCTION In many developing countries, including Vietnam, out-of-pocket payment is the principal source of health financing. The economic growth is widening the gap between rich and poor people in many aspects, including health care utilization. While inequities in health between high- and low-income groups have been well investigated, this study aims to investigate how the health care util...

BACKGROUND The increasing rate of health care expenditures in the United States has placed a significant burden on the nation's economy. Predicting future health care utilization of patients can provide useful information to better understand and manage overall health care deliveries and clinical resource allocation. OBJECTIVE This study developed an electronic medical record (EMR)-based onli...

Objective The study investigated to compare health care utilization and expenditures between diabetic patients with and without depression in Taiwan. Methods Health care utilization and expenditure among diabetic patients with and without depression disorder during 2000 and 2004 were examined using Taiwan's population-based National Health Insurance claims database. Health care utilization in...

OBJECTIVES To review the current status of health care access and utilization among Indigenous people in the North America, Australia and New Zealand. STUDY DESIGN Literature review. METHODS A systematic search and critical review of relevant studies using online searches of electronic databases (PubMed, PsychINFO, MEDLINE) that examined issues relating to health care utilization and access...

BACKGROUND Equal utilization of health services for equal need, is one of the main targets for public health systems. Given the public-private structure of the Greek NHS, the main aim of the study was to investigate the impact of underlying factors, such as health care needs, socio-demographic characteristics and ethnicity, on the utilization of primary and hospital health care in an urban and ...

OBJECTIVES We assessed the utilization of home care by the elderly in Brazil after implementation of the Family Health Strategy (FHS). METHODS Data were derived from a cross-sectional study in a southern city in Brazil. Using the χ(2) test and a logistic regression with different levels of determination, we tested the hypothesis that the FHS increased the utilization of home care compared wit...

OBJECTIVE Few studies have been published on health care utilization in Crohn's disease and the influence of psychological treatment on high utilizers. METHODS The present sub study of a prospective multi center investigation conducted in 87 of 488 consecutive Crohn's disease (CD) patients was designed to investigate the influence of the course of Crohn's disease on health care utilization (h...