Self-perceived health status and inequalities in use of health services in Spain.

BACKGROUND

Socioeconomic differences have been described among the Spanish population. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these variations are associated with differences in the use of health services between socioeconomic groups in Spain, taking into account self-perceived health as a measure of need.

METHODS

Data were obtained from the 1987 Spanish National Health Survey. Socioeconomic position was measured by educational level and household income. Health care use was measured in two ways: prevalence of having consulted a doctor and of hospitalization over a defined period of time. Logistic regression models were used to analyse the relationship of interest.

RESULTS

After adjustment for age, an inverse association was seen between education and both consultation with a doctor and hospitalization. A very different picture emerged when the association between socioeconomic position and probability of health service use was examined according to level of self-perceived health. Among those with poor or very poor health, people in higher educational groups showed the greatest probability of consulting a doctor (odds ratio [OR] = 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] : 0.89-2.23) or of being hospitalized (OR = 1.79, 95% CI : 1.09-2.93) compared to those in the lower educational groups. The corresponding OR for household income were 1.02 (95% CI : 0.74-1.42) for consultation with a doctor and 1.67 (95% CI : 1.15-2.44) for hospitalization. These finding were broadly similar for men and women.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a socioeconomic variation in the pattern of use of health services in Spain in the sense that among those with poor self-perceived health, the more privileged have higher levels of health services use than others.