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Overweight and obesity and the utilization of primary care physicians

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  • Nabanita Datta Gupta
  • Jane Greve

Abstract

We investigate whether overweight or obese individuals utilize more medical care than normal weight individuals by estimating a finite mixture model which splits the population into frequent and non‐frequent users of primary care physician (GP) services. Based on a survey sample aged 25–60 years from the National Health Interview (NHI) 2000 merged to Danish register data, we compare differences in the impact of being overweight and obese relative to being normal weight on the utilization of GP services. Estimated bodyweight effects vary across latent classes and show that being obese or overweight does not increase the utilization of GP services among infrequent users but does so among frequent users. Obese (and to a lesser extent, overweight) infrequent users are observed 5 years later to substantially increase their health‐care usage as measured by doctor visits, hospitalizations, and number of bed days. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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  • Nabanita Datta Gupta & Jane Greve, 2011. "Overweight and obesity and the utilization of primary care physicians," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(S1), pages 53-67, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:20:y:2011:i:s1:p:53-67
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1711
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Richard Layte & Anne Nolan, 2015. "Eligibility for free GP care and the utilisation of GP services by children in Ireland," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 3-27, March.
    2. Kinge, Jonas Minet & Morris, Stephen, 2014. "Association between obesity and prescribed medication use in England," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 47-55.
    3. Cawley, John & Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Hammer, Mette & Wintfeld, Neil, 2015. "Reporting error in weight and its implications for bias in economic models," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 27-44.
    4. Sunday Azagba & Mesbah Sharaf & Christina Xiao Liu, 2013. "Disparities in health care utilization by smoking status in Canada," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 58(6), pages 913-925, December.

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