Health care utilization in older people with cardiovascular disease in China

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research Article

Xiaoyun Liu¹  Tuohong Zhang²  Lixia Dou²  Yangfeng Wu³ 

[1] China Center for Health Development Studies, Peking University Health Science Center, No.38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, China;School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, No.38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, China;School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, No.38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, China;The George Institute for Global Health at Peking University Health Science Center, No.6 Zhichun Road, Beijing, China;Peking University Clinical Research Institute, Peking University Health Science Center, No.38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, China;

关键词: Care Utilization;    Health Care Utilization;    Outpatient Care;    Outpatient Service;    Household Wealth;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-015-0190-y

 received in 2015-01-18, accepted in 2015-07-17,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPopulation is ageing rapidly and prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is increasing in China. This study aims to examine the patterns of outpatient and inpatient health care utilization across different demographic and socioeconomic groups in older people with cardiovascular disease in China.MethodsData were from World Health Organization (WHO) Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (SAGE) Wave 1. Chinese older people aged over 50 years with cardiovascular disease were included in the analysis. Outpatient and inpatient care utilization rates were presented and compared by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between socioeconomic factors and health care utilization.ResultsIn total, 4162 older people with cardiovascular disease in SAGE China Wave 1 were included in the analysis. 86.4 % of them had health insurance. 54.9 % of the patients received outpatient care and 17.7 % received inpatient care over the past 12 months. Outpatient care utilization rate was significantly associated with age. Patients in older groups used more outpatient care than those in younger groups (p = 0.010). Inpatient care utilization rate peaked at 70–79 years group (23.2 %), and then reduced to 17.5 % in 80 years plus group. Rich patients used more outpatient service than the poorer (p < 0.001). No association was found between household wealth status and inpatient service utilization.ConclusionWithin the context of high health insurance coverage in China, the pattern of outpatient care utilization differs from that of inpatient care utilization among older patients aged over 50 years old with cardiovascular disease. Patients tend to use more outpatient care as they became older. As for inpatient care, the oldest patients aged over 80 years use less inpatient care than the 70–79 group. Household economic status plays an important role in outpatient care utilization, but it shows no association with inpatient care utilization in Chinese older patients.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Dou et al. 2015. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.