[Health status of patients on waiting lists].

BACKGROUND

The waiting lists for hospital admission are used as arguments for more resources to hospitals. Concern is expressed that the attention given to waiting list patients has the effect that less resources are devoted to other groups of patients. This article reports on a study of whether waiting list patients are in poorer health that persons who are not on a waiting list.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A random sample of 5,000 Norwegian citizens were drawn to be included in Statistics Norway's 1998 quality and standard of life survey. Interviews were obtained with 3,449 persons. Binomial and multinomial logistic analyses were used.

RESULTS

Individuals in poor health have a higher probability of being on a hospital waiting list than have persons in good health. We did not find any relationship between state of health and a patient's experienced waiting time.

INTERPRETATION

Our findings reject the assertion of arbitrariness regarding the selection of patients to hospital waiting lists. The lack of effect of state of health on experienced waiting time could be interpreted in several ways.