Publication:
Trends and equity in the use of health services in Spain and Germany around austerity in Europe

dc.contributor.authorMoreno Lostao, Almudena
dc.contributor.authorLostao Unzu, Lourdes
dc.contributor.authorBeller, Johannes
dc.contributor.authorSperlich, Stefanie
dc.contributor.authorRonda, Elena
dc.contributor.authorGeyer, Siegfried
dc.contributor.authorPulido, José
dc.contributor.authorRegidor Poyatos, Enrique
dc.contributor.departmentSoziologia eta Gizarte Lanaeu
dc.contributor.departmentInstitute for Advanced Social Research - ICOMMUNITASen
dc.contributor.departmentSociología y Trabajo Sociales_ES
dc.date.accessioned2022-01-17T12:48:01Z
dc.date.available2022-01-17T12:48:01Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.description.abstractBackground: following the 2008 economic crisis many countries implemented austerity policies, including reducing public spending on health services. This paper evaluates the trends and equity in the use of health services during and after that period in Spain - a country with austerity policies - and in Germany - a country without restriction on healthcare spending. Methods: data from several National Surveys in Spain and several waves of the Socio-Economic Panel in Germany, carried out between 2009 and 2017, were used. The dependent variables were number of doctor's consultations and whether or not a hospital admission occurred. The measure of socioeconomic position was education. In each year, the estimates were made for people with and without pre-existing health problems. First, the average number of doctor's consultations and the percentage of respondents who had had been hospitalized were calculated. Second, the relationship between education and use of those health services was estimated by calculating the difference in consultations using covariance analysis - in the case of number of consultations - and by calculating the percentage ratio using binomial regression - in the case of hospitalization. Results: the annual mean number of consultations went down in both countries. In Spain the average was 14.2 in 2009 and 10.4 in 2017 for patients with chronic conditions; 16.6 and 13.5 for those with a mental illness; and 6.4 and 5.9 for those without a defined illness. In Germany, the averages were 13.8 (2009) and 12.9 (2017) for the chronic group; 21.1 and 17.0 for mental illness; and 8.7 and 7.5 with no defined illness. The hospitalization frequency also decreased in both countries. The majority of the analyses presented no significant differences in relation to education. Conclusion: in both Spain and Germany, service use decreased between 2009 and 2017. In the first few years, this reduction coincided with a period of austerity in Spain. In general, we did not find socioeconomic differences in health service use.en
dc.description.sponsorshipThis study was supported by a grant from the 'Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación', Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain (no. CSO2017-83180-P).en
dc.format.extent10 p.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doi10.1186/s12939-021-01459-6
dc.identifier.issn1475-9276
dc.identifier.urihttps://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/41808
dc.language.isoengen
dc.publisherBMC
dc.relation.ispartofInternational Journal for Equity in Health, 20 (1) (2021)
dc.relation.projectIDinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016/CSO2017-83180-P/ES/en
dc.relation.publisherversionhttp://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01459-6
dc.rights© The Author(s). 2021. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.accessRightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectAusterityen
dc.subjectPhysician visitsen
dc.subjectHospitalizationen
dc.subjectEducationex
dc.subjectEquityen
dc.subjectSpainen
dc.subjectGermanyex
dc.titleTrends and equity in the use of health services in Spain and Germany around austerity in Europeen
dc.typeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article
dc.type.versioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionen
dc.type.versionVersión publicada / Argitaratu den bertsioaes
dspace.entity.typePublication
relation.isAuthorOfPublication48ee6978-280e-4514-af57-b933ed1206ac
relation.isAuthorOfPublication2da9f352-0ef4-4be3-9796-b6474e56bef0
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery48ee6978-280e-4514-af57-b933ed1206ac

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