↓ Skip to main content

Regional variation in health care utilization in Sweden – the importance of demand-side factors

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Health Services Research, June 2018
Altmetric Badge

Mentioned by

twitter
1 X user

Citations

dimensions_citation
20 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
53 Mendeley
Title
Regional variation in health care utilization in Sweden – the importance of demand-side factors
Published in
BMC Health Services Research, June 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12913-018-3210-y
Pubmed ID
Authors

Naimi Johansson, Niklas Jakobsson, Mikael Svensson

Abstract

Differences in health care utilization across geographical areas are well documented within several countries. If the variation across areas cannot be explained by differences in medical need, it can be a sign of inefficiency or misallocation of public health care resources. In this observational, longitudinal panel study we use regional level data covering the 21 Swedish regions (county councils) over 13 years and a random effects model to assess to what degree regional variation in outpatient physician visits is explained by observed demand factors such as health, demography and socio-economic factors. The results show that regional mortality, as a proxy for population health, and demography do not explain regional variation in visits to primary care physicians, but explain about 50% of regional variation in visits to outpatient specialists. Adjusting for socio-economic and basic supply-side factors explains 33% of the regional variation in primary physician visits, but adds nothing to explaining the variation in specialist visits. 50-67% of regional variation remains unexplained by a large number of observable regional characteristics, indicating that omitted and possibly unobserved factors contribute substantially to the regional variation. We conclude that variations in health care utilization across regions is not very well explained by underlying medical need and demand, measured by mortality, demographic and socio-economic factors.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 53 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 53 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 10 19%
Student > Doctoral Student 5 9%
Student > Bachelor 5 9%
Other 4 8%
Student > Master 4 8%
Other 7 13%
Unknown 18 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Nursing and Health Professions 8 15%
Economics, Econometrics and Finance 7 13%
Medicine and Dentistry 5 9%
Social Sciences 4 8%
Psychology 2 4%
Other 5 9%
Unknown 22 42%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 June 2018.
All research outputs
#18,637,483
of 23,088,369 outputs
Outputs from BMC Health Services Research
#6,568
of 7,736 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#254,957
of 329,877 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Health Services Research
#196
of 216 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,088,369 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 11th percentile – i.e., 11% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,736 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.8. This one is in the 6th percentile – i.e., 6% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 329,877 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 12th percentile – i.e., 12% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 216 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 4th percentile – i.e., 4% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.