IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v79y2024i2p69-76..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Phenomenon and Determinants of Healthcare Service Utilization for Older Adults With Multimorbidity in China: An Explanatory, Mixed-Method Study

Author

Listed:
  • Jingjie Wu
  • Erxu Xue
  • Yujia Fu
  • Binyu Zhao
  • Chuyang Lai
  • Jing Shao
  • Dandan Chen
  • Nianqi Cui
  • Hui Zhang
  • Leiwen Tang
  • Zhihong Ye
  • Kate de Medeiros

Abstract

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to explore the phenomenon and determinants of healthcare service utilization in Chinese older adults with multimorbidity.MethodsWe adopted a mixed-methods explanatory design from July 2022 to May 2023. The quantitative research was a social network analysis to explore the phenomenon of healthcare service utilization in target participants. The quantitative results were further interpreted as the participant’s propensity for healthcare services and the potential for information sharing between healthcare providers through shared patients. Logistic regression was conducted to identify individual determinants for healthcare service utilization. The quantitative research was followed by qualitative interviews with stakeholders to deeply understand the phenomenon of interest from the individual, healthcare system, and societal perspectives.ResultsWe recruited 321 participants for the quantitative study. They preferred using medication services from primary healthcare providers, pharmacists at private pharmacies, and hospital specialists, and preferred using other services from hospital specialists. Dense relationships arose from shared patients among healthcare providers across various professions and settings, making it possible to share patient information. Primary healthcare providers were particularly important in the process, as they were closely related to others through patient sharing. Health status was identified through logistic regression and qualitative interviews as an individual determinant for healthcare service utilization. More determinants were explored in qualitative interviews with 30 stakeholders, including trust, resource allocation, healthcare accessibility, medical treatment process, and healthcare awareness.DiscussionStrategies should be proposed to intervene with patients’ nonoptimal propensity toward healthcare services and promote information sharing among healthcare providers.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingjie Wu & Erxu Xue & Yujia Fu & Binyu Zhao & Chuyang Lai & Jing Shao & Dandan Chen & Nianqi Cui & Hui Zhang & Leiwen Tang & Zhihong Ye & Kate de Medeiros, 2024. "The Phenomenon and Determinants of Healthcare Service Utilization for Older Adults With Multimorbidity in China: An Explanatory, Mixed-Method Study," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 79(2), pages 69-76.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:79:y:2024:i:2:p:69-76.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbad174
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    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:oup:geronb:v:79:y:2024:i:2:p:69-76.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    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.