• search hit 3 of 9
Back to Result List

Inequalities in the utilisation of primary and specialist physicians in Europe - a systematic review

  • 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 theBackground: 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.show moreshow less

Export metadata

Additional Services

Search Google Scholar
Metadaten
Author: Sara Lena Schröder, Jens Hoebel, Julia Roick, Jenny Markert, Jacob SpallekORCiDGND, Olaf von dem Knesebeck, Matthias Richter
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz186.377
ISSN:1101-1262
ISSN:1464-360X
Title of the source (English):European Journal of Public Health
Document Type:Conference publication peer-reviewed
Language:English
Year of publication:2019
Tag:Inequalities; Primary health care; Review; specialist health care; utilization
Volume/Year:29
Issue number:4
Faculty/Chair:Fakultät 4 Humanwissenschaften (bis 2023 Soziale Arbeit, Gesundheit und Musik) / FG Gesundheitswissenschaften
Einverstanden ✔
Diese Webseite verwendet technisch erforderliche Session-Cookies. Durch die weitere Nutzung der Webseite stimmen Sie diesem zu. Unsere Datenschutzerklärung finden Sie hier.