Title
Population experiences of primary care in 11 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries
Date Issued
01 December 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Inter-American Development Bank
Publisher(s)
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Objective: To develop a measure of individual user assessments of primary care and test its association with health system performance and quality indicators. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of secondary survey data collected in 2013. Setting: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA. Study Participants: 20 045 respondents. Main Outcome Measures: Individual report of financial protection (out of pocket expenses over USD 1000), lack of receipt of appropriate/timely care (use of the emergency room in the past 2 years, having consulted three of more doctors in the past year) and clinical prevention (blood pressure check in past year, cholesterol checked in the past 5 years, receipt of influenza vaccination in past year and report of any medical error). Methods: A score of users' primary care experiences was constructed from 14 individual survey questions. Multivariable Poisson and augmented inverse-probability weighted regression assess the relationship between the primary care experience score and outcomes. Results: Countries differed regarding the proportion of the population experiencing problems with primary care. In analyses controlling for age, sex, health status, chronic disease, income level and health insurance, users experiencing poorer primary carewere significantly more likely to report significant out of pocket expenses, emergency room use in the past 2 years, having consulted more than three doctors in the past year, lower likelihood of blood pressure or cholesterol screening, an annual flu shot and higher reports of medical error. Conclusions: The measure of individual primary care experience can be used to differentiate among different country's primary care approaches and is strongly associated with overall health system performance and quality indicators.
Start page
443
End page
450
Volume
27
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencias de la salud
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84958646483
PubMed ID
Source
International Journal for Quality in Health Care
Resource of which it is part
International Journal for Quality in Health Care
ISSN of the container
13534505
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus