Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

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Volume 3, Issue 3, September 2013, Pages 139 - 146

Socioeconomic inequity in health care utilization, Iran

Authors
Abolfazl Mohammadbeigia, beigi60@gmail.com, Jafar Hassanzadehb, jhasanzad@sums.ac.ir, Babak Eshratic, *, eshratib@sina.tums.ac.ir, Abbas Rezaianzadehd, rezaiana@sums.ac.ir
aEpidemiology, School of Health, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran
bDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Health and Nutrition, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
cDepartment of Epidemiology, School of Health, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran
dResearch Center for Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology, School of Health and Nutrition, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 861 3678633.
Corresponding Author
Received 11 August 2012, Revised 17 March 2013, Accepted 25 March 2013, Available Online 19 April 2013.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2013.03.006How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Concentration index; Inequity; Health care utilization; Socioeconomic situation
Abstract

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 socioeconomic inequity in HCU by concentration (C) index and odds ratio (OR).

Methods:

A total of 758 households, consisting of 2,131 subjects who were aged 15 or older, were involved in this cross-sectional study, and their data were gathered through interviews. Household economic index (HEI) was created by the factor analysis from the asset data. The C index and OR were used as measures to determine the overall inequity in HCU according to sex (male/female), living area (urban/rural), insurance, and types of HCU (general physician [GP], specialist, and Health Workers [HWs]).

Results:

The overall rate of HCU was 66.4%. The rates of using GP, specialist care, and HW care were 21.4%, 21.6% and 21.8%, respectively. The overall inequity in HCU was equal to 0.05 (95% confidence interval; −0.069 to 0.165). The C indexes in HCU, according to the subgroups of HCU, were measured as 0.11 (0.09–0.12) for GP, 0.115 (0.01–0.13) for specialist and −0.065 (−0.08 to −0.05) for HWs. Although the rate of utilization increased from poor to rich quintiles, the inequity regarding sex and living area was also low and non-significant.

Conclusion:

People with higher HEI used more specialist and GP care, while people with lower HEI used more HW care. The inequity in HCU was low and non-significant in different quintiles of males, females, urban and rural, as well as those who were insured.

Copyright
© 2013 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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<Previous Article In Issue
Next Article In Issue>
Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
3 - 3
Pages
139 - 146
Publication Date
2013/04/19
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2013.03.006How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2013 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Abolfazl Mohammadbeigi
AU  - Jafar Hassanzadeh
AU  - Babak Eshrati
AU  - Abbas Rezaianzadeh
PY  - 2013
DA  - 2013/04/19
TI  - Socioeconomic inequity in health care utilization, Iran
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 139
EP  - 146
VL  - 3
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2013.03.006
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2013.03.006
ID  - Mohammadbeigi2013
ER  -