Socioeconomic status and allied health use: Among patients in an academic family health team.

OBJECTIVE

To identify whether socioeconomic status is associated with allied health use among patients in a large academic family health team (FHT).

DESIGN

Data were collected through a retrospective chart review using an electronic medical record system.

SETTING

A large academic FHT in Ottawa, Ont.

PARTICIPANTS

Patients with at least 1 in-person clinician encounter between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2013.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Descriptive statistics were used to compare patients who accessed allied health services with those who did not. We conducted logistic regression analyses to determine whether income quintile was independently associated with allied health use after adjusting for other patient characteristics.

RESULTS

The inclusion criteria identified 2938 unique patients, of whom 949 (32.3%) saw an allied health provider(AHP) during the study period. While patients in the fourth income quintile had the greatest AHP use per person (41.2% of patients had at least 1 AHP visit), those in the lowest income quintile had the greatest mean number of AHPs seen(mean [SD] = 1.48 [0.80]). After adjustment, the odds of seeing an AHP were significantly increased with older age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.02, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.02) and female sex (OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.48 to 2.22). Compared with patients in the highest income quintile, patients in the lowest (OR = 1.33, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.72) and fourth (OR = 1.88, 95% CI 1.33 to 2.66) income quintiles had significantly higher odds of seeing AHPs.

CONCLUSION

Within an academic FHT, lower-income patients were more likely to use allied health services, suggesting equitable allocation of resources. We encourage other FHTs to similarly assess their allied health resource allocation as an important outcome for investments in Ontario FHTs.