Universal health insurance and equity in primary care and specialist office visits: A population-based study

Annals of Family Medicine

Volumn 7, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 396-405

  Glazier, Richard H ^a,b,c,d   Agha, Mohammad M ^b,d   Moineddin, Rahim ^a,c,d   Sibley, Lyn M ^a  

^a INSTITUTE FOR CLINICAL EVALUATIVE SCIENCES   (Canada)

^b ST MICHAEL'S HOSPITAL   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^d UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

Access to health care; Canada; Educational status; Health care delivery; Health services research; Healthcare disparities; Primary health care; Socioeconomic factors; Specialist care

Indexed keywords

ADULT; AGED; ARTICLE; CANADA; DERMATOLOGY; EDUCATION; FEMALE; HEALTH INSURANCE; HEALTH SERVICE; HEALTH STATUS; HUMAN; INCOME; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; MALE; MEDICAL SPECIALIST; OPHTHALMOLOGY; POPULATION RESEARCH; PRIMARY MEDICAL CARE; SELF REPORT;

EID: 70349170202     PISSN: 15441709     EISSN: 15441717     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1370/afm.994     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Frank JW, Cohen R, Yen I, Balfour J, Smith M. Socioeconomic gradients in health status over 29 years of follow-up after midlife: the Alameda county study. Soc Sci Med. 2003;57(12):2305-2323. (Pubitemid 37324012)
2. Alter DA, Naylor CD, Austin P, Tu JV. Effects of socioeconomic status on access to invasive cardiac procedures and on mortality after acute myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 1999;341(18):1359-1367. (Pubitemid 29503576)
3. Wilkins R, Berthelot JM, Ng E. Trends in mortality by neighbourhood income in urban Canada from 1971 to 1996. Health Rep. 2002;13S:1-28.
4. Glazier RH, Badley EM, Gilbert JE, Rothman L. The nature of increased hospital use in poor neighbourhoods: findings from a Canadian inner city. Can J Public Health. 2000;91(4):268-273. (Pubitemid 30738539)
5. Matthews RJ, Smith LK, Hancock RM, Jagger C, Spiers NA. Socioeconomic factors associated with the onset of disability in older age: a longitudinal study of people aged 75 years and over. Soc Sci Med. 2005;61(7):1567-1575. (Pubitemid 40991280)
6. Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, et al. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991;337(8754):1387- 1393.
7. Canada Health Act, 1985. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-6/. Accessed Apr 18, 2008.
8. Dunlop S, Coyte PC, McIsaac W. Socio-economic status and the utilisation of physicians' services: results from the Canadian National Population Health Survey. Soc Sci Med. 2000;51(1):123-133. (Pubitemid 30157924)
9. van Doorslaer E, Masseria C, Koolman X; OECD Health Equity Research Group. Inequalities in access to medical care by income in developed countries. CMAJ. 2006;174(2):177-183.
10. McIsaac W, Goel V, Naylor D. Socio-economic status and visits to physicians by adults in Ontario, Canada. J Health Serv Res Policy. 1997;2(2):94-102. (Pubitemid 27196936)
11. Nabalamba A, Millar WJ. Going to the doctor. Health Rep. 2007;18(1):23-35.
12. Asada Y, Kephart G. Equity in health services use and intensity of use in Canada. BMC Health Serv Res. 2007;7:41. (Pubitemid 46449918)
13. Allin S. Does equity in healthcare use vary across Canadian provinces? Healthc Policy. 2008;3(4):83-99.
14. Roos NP, Mustard CA. Variation in health and health care use by socioeconomic status in Winnipeg, Canada: does the system work well? Yes and no. Milbank Q. 1997;75(1):89-111.
15. Chan BTB, Austin PC. Patient, physician, and community factors affecting referrals to specialists in Ontario, Canada: a population-based, multi-level modelling approach. Med Care. 2003;41(4):500-511.
16. Veugelers PJ, Yip AM. Socioeconomic disparities in health care use: Does universal coverage reduce inequalities in health? J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003;57(6):424-428.
17. Finkelstein MM. Do factors other than need determine utilization of physicians' services in Ontario? CMAJ. 2001;165(5):565-570.
18. Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) - Cycle 1.1. http://www.statcan. ca/english/concepts/health/. Accessed Apr 17, 2008.
19. Composite International Diagnostic Interview Short Form. (CIDI-SF; v1.1 Dec2002). http://www3.who.int/cidi/cidisf.htm. Accessed Apr 7, 2007.
20. Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins ACG Case-Mix Adjustment System. http://www.acg.jhsph.edu. Accessed Jan 21, 2008
21. Weiner JP, Starfield BH, Steinwachs DM, Mumford LM. Development and application of a population-oriented measure of ambulatory care case-mix. Med Care. 1991;29(5):452-472.
22. Starfield B, Weiner J, Mumford L, Steinwachs D. Ambulatory care groups: a categorization of diagnoses for research and management. Health Serv Res. 1991;26(1):53-74.
23. Wolff JL, Starfield B, Anderson G. Prevalence, expenditures, and complications of multiple chronic conditions in the elderly. Arch Intern Med. 2002;162(20):2269-2276. (Pubitemid 35332510)
24. Halling A, Fridh G, Ovhed I. Validating the Johns Hopkins ACG Case-Mix System of the elderly in Swedish primary health care. BMC Public Health. 2006;6:171. (Pubitemid 44252039)
25. Lee W-C. Quantifying morbidities by Adjusted Clinical Group system for a Taiwan population: a nationwide analysis. BMC Health Serv Res. 2008;8:153.
26. Demidenko E. Sample size determination for logistic regression revisited. Stat Med. 2007;26(18):3385-3397. (Pubitemid 47161998)
27. Grimmer K, Bowman P. The effect of age and chronicity on patient recall of public hospital outpatient clinic use. Aust Health Rev. 1997;20(1):78-87.
28. Weissman JS, Levin K, Chasan-Taber S, Massagli MP, Seage GR III, Scampini L. The validity of self-reported health-care utilization by AIDS patients. AIDS. 1996;10(7):775-783. (Pubitemid 26172782)
29. Kupek E. Bias and heteroscedastic memory error in self-reported health behavior: an investigation using covariance structure analysis. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2002;2:14. (Pubitemid 38994349)
30. Finkelstein MM. Ecologic proxies for household income: how well do they work for the analysis of health and health care utilization? Can J Public Health. 2004;95(2):90-94.
31. Hanley GE, Morgan S. On the validity of area-based income measures to proxy household income. BMC Health Serv Res. 2008;8:79. (Pubitemid 351641951)
32. Haider A, Mamdani M, Shaw JC, Alter DA, Shear NH. Socioeconomic status influences care of patients with acne in Ontario, Canada. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006;54(2):331-335. (Pubitemid 43144410)
33. Steele LS, Glazier RH, Lin E, Mustard CA, Austin P. Inequity in mental health care under Canadian universal health coverage. Psychiatr Serv. 2006;57(3):317-324. (Pubitemid 43364182)
34. Shi L, Macinko J, Starfield B, Wulu J, Regan J, Politzer R. The relationship between primary care, income inequality, and mortality in US States, 1980-1995. J Am Board Fam Pract. 2003;16(5):412-422.