Trajectory modelling of ambulatory care sensitive conditions in Finland in 1996-2013: assessing the development of equity in primary health care through clustering of geographic areas - an observational retrospective study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Due to stagnating resources and an increase in staff workload, the quality of Finnish primary health care (PHC) is claimed to have deteriorated slowly. With a decentralised PHC organisation and lack of national stewardship, it is likely that municipalities have adopted different coping strategies, predisposing them to geographic disparities. To assess whether these disparities emerge, we analysed health centre area trajectories in hospitalisations due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs).

Methods

ACSCs, a proxy for PHC quality, comprises conditions in which hospitalisation could be avoided by timely care. We obtained ACSCs of the total Finnish population aged ≥20 for the years 1996-2013 from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, and divided them into

SUBMITTER: Satokangas M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6727548 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature