Flennert Maike, König Hans-Helmut, Hajek André
Department of Health Economics and Health Services Research, Hamburg Center for Health Economics, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
BMC Health Serv Res. 2019 Jan 15;19(1):39. doi: 10.1186/s12913-019-3867-x.
While most studies focused on the relation between volunteering and health-related outcomes, little attention has been given on the association between volunteering and the use of health care services. Thus, with this analysis we aimed at exploring whether and how the voluntary work of older adults is related to the utilization of health care services in Germany.
The analysis was based on data from the German Ageing Survey (DEAS), a nationally representative, longitudinal study of the German population aged 40 years and older. Focusing on volunteering, data from the waves 2002, 2008 and 2011 was used. Voluntary work in groups and organizations (yes/no) was used as explanatory variable. To quantify health care utilization, visits to general practitioners and specialists as well as nights in the hospital in the past 12 months were used. Fixed effects regressions were applied to estimate the association between volunteering and the outcome variables.
Regressions revealed that the onset of volunteer involvement was associated with an increase in specialist visits, whereas volunteering did not affect visits to general practitioners and the probability of hospitalization significantly.
Our findings emphasize the relation between volunteering and specialist visits. Future research is needed to examine the impact of volunteering on health care use, taking more detailed information regarding the specific context of volunteering as well as personality factors and personal background into consideration. This might be reasonable in advancing the knowledge about this association and in developing planned interventions.
虽然大多数研究聚焦于志愿服务与健康相关结果之间的关系，但志愿服务与医疗服务利用之间的关联却很少受到关注。因此，通过本分析，我们旨在探究德国老年人的志愿工作是否以及如何与医疗服务利用相关。
该分析基于德国老龄化调查（DEAS）的数据，这是一项对40岁及以上德国人口具有全国代表性的纵向研究。聚焦于志愿服务，使用了2002年、2008年和2011年的数据。在团体和组织中的志愿工作（是/否）用作解释变量。为了量化医疗服务利用情况，使用了过去12个月内看全科医生和专科医生的次数以及住院天数。应用固定效应回归来估计志愿服务与结果变量之间的关联。
回归显示，开始参与志愿活动与专科医生就诊次数增加有关，而志愿服务对看全科医生的次数和住院概率没有显著影响。
我们的研究结果强调了志愿服务与专科医生就诊之间的关系。未来需要进行研究，以考察志愿服务对医疗服务利用的影响，同时考虑关于志愿活动具体背景以及个性因素和个人背景的更详细信息。这对于增进对这种关联的了解以及制定有计划的干预措施可能是合理的。
