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Association between general practice referral rates and patients' socioeconomic status and access to specialised health care: A population-based nationwide study

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  • Sørensen, Torben Højmark
  • Olsen, Kim Rose
  • Vedsted, Peter

Abstract

Objectives To explore the association between patients' socioeconomic status and their referral from general practice to specialised health care.Methods Multiple regression analysis was used on cross-sectional data on general practice referral rates for all Danish general practices in year 2006.Results Our models explained between 26% and 45% of the variation in general practice referral to specialised care. Adjusting for access to specialised care (local supply of hospitals and practicing specialists) reduced the association between socioeconomic factors and referral rates. The results suggest that persons with high socioeconomic status are referred more to practicing specialist than persons with low socioeconomic status and that the latter are referred more to hospital care than the former.Conclusions Our results indicate that the influence of socioeconomic factors may be overstated failing to control for access to specialised care. Still, a socioeconomic gradient was observed in GPs' referral pattern to different sorts of health care after adjusting for access. The association between socioeconomic status and referral pattern can both be rooted in morbidity variation and to the ability of persons with high socioeconomic status to influence general practitioners' (GPs') decision making.

Suggested Citation

  • Sørensen, Torben Højmark & Olsen, Kim Rose & Vedsted, Peter, 2009. "Association between general practice referral rates and patients' socioeconomic status and access to specialised health care: A population-based nationwide study," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(2-3), pages 180-186, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:92:y:2009:i:2-3:p:180-186
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Xiang Jing & Lingzhong Xu & Wenzhe Qin & Jiao Zhang & Lu Lu & Yali Wang & Yu Xia & An’an Jiao & Yaozu Li, 2020. "The Willingness for Downward Referral and Its Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study among Older Adults in Shandong, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. K. R. Olsen, 2012. "Patient complexity and GPS' income under mixed remuneration," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 619-632, June.
    3. Hackl, Franz & Hummer, Michael & Pruckner, Gerald J., 2015. "Old boys’ network in general practitioners’ referral behavior?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 56-73.
    4. Jonas Fooken & Varinder Jeet, 2022. "Using Australian panel data to account for unobserved factors in measuring inequities for different channels of healthcare utilization," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(4), pages 717-728, June.
    5. Jens Hoebel & Petra Rattay & Franziska Prütz & Alexander Rommel & Thomas Lampert, 2016. "Socioeconomic Status and Use of Outpatient Medical Care: The Case of Germany," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Kim Olsen & Dorte Gyrd-Hansen & Torben Sørensen & Troels Kristensen & Peter Vedsted & Andrew Street, 2013. "Organisational determinants of production and efficiency in general practice: a population-based study," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 14(2), pages 267-276, April.

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