@misc{SchroederHoebelRoicketal., author = {Schr{\"o}der, Sara Lena and Hoebel, Jens and Roick, Julia and Markert, Jenny and Spallek, Jacob and Knesebeck, Olaf von dem and Richter, Matthias}, title = {Inequalities in the utilisation of primary and specialist physicians in Europe - a systematic review}, series = {European Journal of Public Health}, volume = {29}, journal = {European Journal of Public Health}, number = {4}, issn = {1101-1262}, doi = {10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.377}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @misc{LueckmannHoebelRoicketal., author = {Lueckmann, Sara Lena and Hoebel, Jens and Roick, Julia and Markert, Jenny and Spallek, Jacob and Knesebeck, Olaf von dem and Richter, Matthias}, title = {Socioeconomic inequalities in primary-care and specialist physician visits: a systematic review}, series = {International journal for equity in health}, volume = {20}, journal = {International journal for equity in health}, issn = {1475-9276}, doi = {10.1186/s12939-020-01375-1}, pages = {19}, abstract = {Background Utilization of primary-care and specialist physicians seems to be associated differently with socioeconomic status (SES). This review aims to summarize and compare the evidence on socioeconomic inequalities in consulting primary-care or specialist physicians in the general adult population in high-income countries. Methods We carried out a systematic search across the most relevant databases (Web of Science, Medline) and included all studies, published since 2004, reporting associations between SES and utilization of primary-care and/or specialist physicians. In total, 57 studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria. Results Many studies found socioeconomic inequalities in physician utilization, but inequalities were more pronounced in visiting specialists than primary-care physicians. The results of the studies varied strongly according to the operationalization of utilization, namely whether a physician was visited (probability) or how often a physician was visited (frequency). For probabilities of visiting primary-care physicians predominantly no association with SES was found, but frequencies of visits were higher in the most disadvantaged. The most disadvantaged often had lower probabilities of visiting specialists, but in many studies no link was found between the number of visits and SES. Conclusion This systematic review emphasizes that inequalities to the detriment of the most deprived is primarily a problem in the probability of visiting specialist physicians. Healthcare policy should focus first off on effective access to specialist physicians in order to tackle inequalities in healthcare.}, language = {en} }