IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i9p1553-d227958.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Frequent Attendance of Outpatient Physicians: A Longitudinal Analysis Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)

Author

Listed:
  • Moritz Hadwiger

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
    Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, University of Lübeck, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany)

  • Hans-Helmut König

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

  • André Hajek

    (Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany)

Abstract

There is a lack of population-based longitudinal studies which investigates the factors leading to frequent attendance of outpatient physicians. Thus, the purpose of this study was to analyze the determinants of frequent attendance using a longitudinal approach. The used dataset comprises seven waves (2002 to 2014; n = 28,574 observations; ranging from 17 to 102 years) from the nationally representative German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP). The number of outpatient physician visits in the last three months was used to construct the dependent variable “frequent attendance”. Different cut-offs were used (top 25%; top 10%; top 5%). Variable selection was based on the “behavioral model of health care use” by Andersen. Accordingly, variables were grouped into predisposing, enabling, and need characteristics as well as health behavior, which are possible determinants of frequent attendance. Conditional fixed effects logistic regressions were used. As for predisposing characteristics, regressions showed that getting married and losing one’s job increased the likelihood of frequent attendance. Furthermore, age was negatively associated with the outcome measure. Enabling characteristics were not significantly associated with the outcome measure, except for the onset of the “practice fee”. Decreases in mental and physical health were associated with an increased likelihood of frequent attendance. Findings were robust across different subpopulations. The findings of this study showed that need characteristics are particularly important for the onset of frequent attendance. This might indicate that people begin to use health services frequently when medically indicated.

Suggested Citation

  • Moritz Hadwiger & Hans-Helmut König & André Hajek, 2019. "Determinants of Frequent Attendance of Outpatient Physicians: A Longitudinal Analysis Using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-10, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1553-:d:227958
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1553/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/9/1553/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Thai-Thanh Dang & Douglas Fore & Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole & Howard Oxley, 1998. "Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 189, OECD Publishing.
    2. Monika Sander, 2008. "Is There Migration-Related Inequity in Access to or in the Utilisation of Health Care in Germany?," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 147, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Verbrugge, Lois M. & Jette, Alan M., 1994. "The disablement process," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 1-14, January.
    4. Matthias Nübling & Hanfried H. Andersen & Axel Mühlbacher & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2007. "Computation of Standard Values for Physical and Mental Health Scale Scores Using the SOEP Version of SF12v2," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 127(1), pages 171-182.
    5. Vedsted, Peter & Fink, Per & Sørensen, H.T.Henrik Toft & Olesen, Frede, 2004. "Physical, mental and social factors associated with frequent attendance in Danish general practice. A population-based cross-sectional study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 813-823, August.
    6. SOEP Group, 2001. "The German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) after More than 15 Years: Overview," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(1), pages 7-14.
    7. André Hajek & Jens-Oliver Bock & Hans-Helmut König, 2017. "The role of personality in health care use: Results of a population-based longitudinal study in Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, July.
    8. Dunlop, Sheryl & Coyte, Peter C. & McIsaac, Warren, 2000. "Socio-economic status and the utilisation of physicians' services: results from the Canadian National Population Health Survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 123-133, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. André Hajek & Freia De Bock & Lothar H. Wieler & Philipp Sprengholz & Benedikt Kretzler & Hans-Helmut König, 2020. "Perceptions of Health Care Use in Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-13, December.
    2. André Hajek & Benedikt Kretzler & Hans-Helmut König, 2020. "Determinants of Frequent Attendance in Primary Care. Study Protocol for a Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-6, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. André Hajek & Hans-Helmut König, 2018. "Informal caregiving and personality: Results of a population-based longitudinal study in Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(9), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Angela Daley & Thesia I. Garner & Shelley Phipps & Eva Sierminska, 2020. "Differences across Place and Time in Household Expenditure Patterns: Implications for the Estimation of Equivalence Scales," Economic Working Papers 520, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    3. van Zon, Sander K.R. & Bültmann, Ute & Reijneveld, Sijmen A. & de Leon, Carlos F. Mendes, 2016. "Functional health decline before and after retirement: A longitudinal analysis of the Health and Retirement Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 26-34.
    4. Herwig Immervoll & Horacio Levy & Christine Lietz & Daniela Mantovani & Cathal O’Donoghue & Holly Sutherland & Gerlinde Verbist, 2006. "Household Incomes and Redistribution in the European Union: Quantifying the Equalizing Properties of Taxes and Benefits," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Dimitri B. Papadimitriou (ed.), The Distributional Effects of Government Spending and Taxation, chapter 5, pages 135-165, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Hoeck, Sarah & François, Guido & Van der Heyden, Johan & Geerts, Joanna & Van Hal, Guido, 2011. "Healthcare utilisation among the Belgian elderly in relation to their socio-economic status," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 174-182, February.
    6. Deborah De Moortel & Nico Dragano & Morten Wahrendorf, 2020. "Involuntary Full- and Part-Time Work: Employees’ Mental Health and the Role of Family- and Work-Related Resources," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Kenworthy, Lane, 2000. "Quantitative indicators of corporatism: A survey and assessment," MPIfG Discussion Paper 00/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    8. Eibich, Peter & Ziebarth, Nicolas, 2014. "Examining the Structure of Spatial Health Effects in Germany Using Hierarchical Bayes Models," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 49, pages 305-320.
    9. Otterbach, Steffen & Wooden, Mark & Fok, Yin King, 2016. "Working-Time Mismatch and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 9818, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Francois, Joseph & Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo, 2005. "The Construction and Interpretation of Combined Cross-Section and Time-Series Inequality Datasets," CEPR Discussion Papers 5214, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Badley, Elizabeth M., 2008. "Enhancing the conceptual clarity of the activity and participation components of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2335-2345, June.
    12. Bergemann, Annette & Mertens, Antje, 2004. "Job Stability Trends, Layoffs, and Transitions to Unemployment: An Empirical Analysis for West Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 1368, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Newton, Nicky J. & Ryan, Lindsay H. & King, Rachel T. & Smith, Jacqui, 2014. "Cohort differences in the marriage–health relationship for midlife women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 64-72.
    14. Constant, Amelie F. & Gataullina, Liliya & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2009. "Ethnosizing immigrants," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 274-287, March.
    15. Plaisier, Inger & Verbeek-Oudijk, Debbie & de Klerk, Mirjam, 2017. "Developments in home-care use. Policy and changing community-based care use by independent community-dwelling adults in the Netherlands," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 82-89.
    16. Frick, Joachim R. & Grabka, Markus M. & Groh-Samberg, Olaf, 2007. "Economic Gains from Publicly Provided Education in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 2911, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Daniel Kemptner & Jan Marcus, 2013. "Spillover effects of maternal education on child’s health and health behavior," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 29-52, March.
    18. Sebastian Panthöfer, 2016. "Risk Selection under Public Health Insurance with Opt‐Out," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(9), pages 1163-1181, September.
    19. Lee, Christopher Thomas & Guzman, David & Ponath, Claudia & Tieu, Lina & Riley, Elise & Kushel, Margot, 2016. "Residential patterns in older homeless adults: Results of a cluster analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 131-140.
    20. Abeliansky, Ana Lucia & Beulmann, Matthias, 2019. "Are they coming for us? Industrial robots and the mental health of workers," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 379, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:9:p:1553-:d:227958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.