The impact of preventive health behaviour and social factors on visits to the doctor.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The aim of this study is to examine the joint impact of preventive health behavior (PHB) and social and demographic factors on the utilization of primary and secondary medical care under a universal health care system, as measured by visits to the doctor, who were categorized as either a General Practitioner (GP) or Specialist Doctor (SD).

Methods

An ordered probit model was utilized to analyze data obtained from the 2009 Israeli National Health Survey. The problem of endogeneity between PHB factors and visits to GP was approached using the two-stage residuals inclusion and instrumental variables method.

Results

We found a positive effect of PHB on visits to the doctor while the addition of the PHB factors to the independent variables resulted in important

SUBMITTER: Yom Din G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4290136 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature