Department of Demography and Geodemography, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
Int J Public Health. 2022 Feb 18;67:1604067. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2022.1604067. eCollection 2022.
Although people use health services throughout their lives, there are important differences in timing, location, and frequency of utilization. The aim of this article is to identify and explain these differences in terms of healthcare accessibility. Outpatient health services-diabetology, cardiology, and psychiatry-are analysed using anonymized data from the General Health Insurance Company (GHIC) in Czechia for 2019. Healthcare utilization is studied in relation to selected geodemographic characteristics-patient's age, sex, place of permanent residence, and location of healthcare provision. The analysis found significant differences in the utilization of the selected health services in terms of age, sex, and size of the patient's municipality of residence. Generally, men tended to travel outside their municipality for healthcare more than women. Young patients were more likely (and also further) to travel outside their municipality for healthcare than older patients. The reasons for this were the location of the health service provider (mostly concentrated in local/regional centres), the patient's ability and willingness to travel for healthcare, and differences in the patient's permanent and ordinary place of residence.
尽管人们在一生中都会使用医疗服务，但在时间、地点和使用频率上存在着重要的差异。本文旨在从医疗保健可及性的角度来识别和解释这些差异。 使用来自捷克共和国通用健康保险公司（GHIC）的匿名数据，对 2019 年的门诊医疗服务（糖尿病学、心脏病学和精神病学）进行了分析。研究了与选定的人口统计学特征（患者年龄、性别、常住地和医疗服务提供地）相关的医疗保健利用率。 分析发现，在选定的医疗服务利用方面，年龄、性别和患者所在市的规模存在显著差异。一般来说，男性比女性更倾向于到自己所在市以外的地方就医。年轻患者比老年患者更有可能（而且距离也更远）到自己所在市以外的地方就医。 造成这种情况的原因是医疗服务提供者的位置（主要集中在地方/区域中心）、患者出行就医的能力和意愿，以及患者常住地和通常居住地的差异。
