Determining the use of health care services by obese inhabitants of Warsaw. A preliminary study.
Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig
; 65(1): 62-6, 2014.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24964581
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The excessive use of health care services by obese people constitutes a serious financial burden to all highly developed countries. As yet however, this has not been recognised to be a problem in Poland.OBJECTIVE:
To provide a preliminary analysis of Warsaw inhabitants in their use of and quality of received health care by comparing obese subjects with those of normal weight. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
Study subjects were fifty three obese (BMI > 30) and one hundred eighty one normal weight (18.5 < BMI < 25) inhabitants of Warsaw, who had taken part in a study on social participation in health care reforms. The use of health care services covered visits to public health care physicians, hospitalisation and visiting private physicians. Assessing health care quality was by evaluating overall the health care system and the family doctor as well as out-of-pocket treatment expenses and any difficulties in accessing physicians.RESULTS:
Obese subjects perceived their health to be significantly worse than those of normal weight and significantly more of them never attended private practice. Consultation with public health physicians was also frequently, but not significantly, higher in the former whilst hospital admissions were the same in both groups. Obese subjects gave considerably lower general assessments of the quality of the health care system and more often perceived their medical expenses as being very high, nevertheless, both these differences were statistically insignificant.CONCLUSIONS:
The obtained findings have allowed us to formulate new recommendations for future research. These will examine various uses of health care services by the obese, i.e. family doctors and other specialists of public primary health care, out-patient clinic physicians and private physicians (according to their defined specialisations), hospitals according to location and rehabilitation centres. Account will be taken of visiting frequency, admission waiting time for physicians, length of visits, amounts of prescribed medication, out-of-pocket payment for treatment and medication, frequency of surgical interventions, satisfaction with given treatments and physician attitudes towards obese patients. Moreover, the socioeconomic status of the obese will be investigated as a potential obstacle to using health care services.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Participação da Comunidade
/
Pesquisas sobre Atenção à Saúde
/
Assistência Ambulatorial
/
Necessidades e Demandas de Serviços de Saúde
/
Hospitalização
/
Obesidade
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig
Ano de publicação:
2014
Tipo de documento:
Article