TY - GEN A1 - Schröder, Sara Lena A1 - Hoebel, Jens A1 - Roick, Julia A1 - Markert, Jenny A1 - Spallek, Jacob A1 - Knesebeck, Olaf von dem A1 - Richter, Matthias T1 - Inequalities in the utilisation of primary and specialist physicians in Europe - a systematic review T2 - European Journal of Public Health N2 - Background: The evidence on inequalities in health clearly shows that people with lower socioeconomic status (SES) have poorer health and higher mortality. Nevertheless, generalized evidence for inequalities in healthcare is lacking. So far, the international literature was only summarised with regard to inequalities in the utilisation of disease-specific treatment. Therefore, our aim was to synthetize the literature on socioeconomic inequalities in the utilisation of primary and specialist physicians in the general population. Methods: This systematic review searched Medline und Web of Science from 2004 to 2018. Articles that reported quantitative data on the association of SES with utilisation of primary or specialist physicians in Europe were included. Title and abstract screening were performed by two independent researchers and 50 full texts are currently sifted whether they fulfil the inclusion criteria. Results: The studies analysed utilisation of physicians in terms of probability or frequency. The initial check of the studies indicates that socioeconomic inequalities in the utilisation of physicians differ between primary and specialist care. Specialist physicians were found to be visited with a higher probability and more often by the least disadvantaged in most studies. Inequalities in the utilisation of primary physicians revealed to be more diverse with a weak pattern of equally distributed probability of GP visits and more frequent utilisation by the disadvantaged. Conclusions: The preliminary results indicate that pro-rich utilisation seems to be more pronounced in visiting specialists compared to primary health care. Aiming to reduce inequalities in healthcare, public health actions might primarily focus on reaching a needs-based consultation of specialist physicians. KW - Inequalities KW - Review KW - Primary health care KW - specialist health care KW - utilization Y1 - 2019 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-UBICO/frontdoor/index/index/docId/24907 SN - 1101-1262 SN - 1464-360X VL - 29 IS - 4 ER -