OBJECTIVE To test whether utilization of infant preventive care services has reduced utilization of inpatient care and to determine whether implementation of Taiwan's National Health Insurance (NHI) has brought about any differences in the utilization of infant health care services. DATA SOURCES Data were taken from the 1989 and 1996 National Maternal and Infant Health Surveys (NMIHSs). In to...

INTRODUCTION Successful health system planning and management is dependent on well informed decisions, so having complete knowledge about medical services' utilization is essential for resource allocation and health plans. The main goal of this study is identification of factors effecting inpatient and outpatient services utilization in public and private sectors. METHODS This study encompass...

This study examines women's use and expenditures for medical care in the US. In 2000, 91% of women aged 18 years and older used any form of health care services. Overall, 82% of adult women reported an ambulatory care visit, and 11% had an inpatient hospital stay. Mean expense per person with expenses was 3219 dollars for that year. We examined use and expenditures by sociodemographic character...

UNLABELLED Reducing poor-rich inequities in health is one of the priorities of both national and international organizations and is also one of the main challenges of health sectors in Iran. Since, in the view of policy making, quantifying the size of inequity in health care utilization (HCU) is a prerequisite for achieving this goal, the current study aimed to determine and compare the socioec...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of the implementation of universal bilirubin screening on neonatal health care use in the context of a large jurisdiction with universal health insurance. METHODS We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of all newborns discharged after birth between April 2003 and February 2011 from 42 hospitals that implemented universal bilirubin screening...

Access to public services is not equally distributed in Iran (1). This general rule also includes the access to health care services as the distribution of facilities is unequal skewed in terms of geographic location (2). The success of national development programs largely depends on success of health sector in achieving its objectives, and proper utilization of health care services in differe...

BACKGROUND Improving maternal health is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aimed at improving maternal healthcare and reducing maternal mortality. The utilization of maternal health services is influenced by several factors that need to be better understood. The objective of this study was to estimate the role of socio-economic position as a determinant of the utilization of m...

Utilization of health services is a complex behavioral phenomenon. Empirical studies of preventive and curative services have often found that use of health services is related to the availability, quality and cost of services, as well as to social structure, health beliefs and personal characteristics of the users. In this paper an attempt is made to examine the factors associated with the use...

BACKGROUND Despite the substantially high prevalence of depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among Asian American women who are children of immigrants, little is known about the prevalence of mental health utilization and the perceived barriers to accessing care. METHODS The data were from the Asian American Women's Sexual Health Initiative Project (AWSHIP), a 5-year mixed metho...

BACKGROUND Despite the goal of the Swedish health system to offer health care according to the principle of horizontal equity, little is known about the equality in access to health care use among young people. To explore this issue, the present study aimed i) to assess horizontal inequity in health care utilization among young people in Northern Sweden; and ii) to explore the contribution of d...