Liu Jiexin Jason
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 29 S. Paca St., LL, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2007 Aug;18(3):590-8. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2007.0062.
Although areas designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) have fewer primary care physicians than non-HPSAs, few studies have tested whether HPSA designation is related to health status and medical service access. This study examined whether residents living in HPSAs were more likely to report worse health status and to be more likely to have difficulty in getting access medical services than residents living in non-HPSAs, with survey data of 10,940 adult West Virginians. Multiple regression results indicate that HPSA is associated with worse general health status and poor physical health, and less access to medical services (measured by had usual place for medical care, experienced not getting needed health care and had outpatient care) but not to inpatient care. These findings indicate that the current HPSA designation system does capture the significant differences between residents of HPSAs and residents of non-HPSAs in health status and medical services access.
尽管被指定为卫生专业人员短缺地区（HPSA）的地区比非HPSA地区的初级保健医生更少，但很少有研究检验过HPSA指定是否与健康状况和医疗服务可及性相关。本研究利用对10940名西弗吉尼亚州成年居民的调查数据，考察了居住在HPSA地区的居民是否比居住在非HPSA地区的居民更有可能报告健康状况较差以及更有可能在获得医疗服务方面存在困难。多元回归结果表明，HPSA与总体健康状况较差、身体健康不佳以及获得医疗服务的机会较少（以有常规医疗保健场所、经历过未获得所需医疗保健以及接受过门诊治疗来衡量）相关，但与住院治疗无关。这些发现表明，当前的HPSA指定系统确实反映出了HPSA地区居民与非HPSA地区居民在健康状况和医疗服务可及性方面的显著差异。
