Israel Journal of Health Policy Research
Volume 3, Issue 1, 2014
Characteristics of individuals not visiting their primary care provider (Note) (Open Access)
Bitton A.* ,
Dugani S.B.
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a
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, 1620 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02120, United States, Harvard Medical School, Department of Health Care Policy and Center for Primary Care, Boston, United States, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health, Ariadne Labs, a Joint Center for Health Systems Innovation, Boston, United States
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b
Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard School of Public Health, Ariadne Labs, a Joint Center for Health Systems Innovation, Boston, United States, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Medicine, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Abstract
The observational study by Rosen and colleagues described the proportion and characteristics of individuals who do not visit their primary care physician regularly. Overall, they identify a very low rate of non-attendance, high rates of visit frequency, and describe predictors of non-attendance. In this study of 421,012 individuals, only 6,217 (or, 1.5% of the study population) did not visit their primary care physician over the four-year study period. Multivariate analysis showed that the strongest predictors of non-attendance were being male, being a new immigrant, and the presence of fewer chronic diseases. This study raises important questions about why patients seem to be so engaged with primary care in Israel, whether this engagement explains part of the Israeli health system's success, and ways to best structure primary care services in the future. © Bitton and Dugani; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84928781102&doi=10.1186%2f2045-4015-3-40&partnerID=40&md5=0da10d185a96475902a81f7b774ba744
DOI: 10.1186/2045-4015-3-40
ISSN: 20454015
Original Language: English