Individual and Area-level Factors Contributing to the Geographic Variation in Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in Finland: A Register-based Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Measuring primary health care (PHC) performance through hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) remains controversial-recent cross-sectional research claims that its geographic variation associates more with individual socioeconomic position (SEP) and health status than PHC supply.

Objectives

To clarify the usage of ACSCs as a PHC performance indicator by quantifying how disease burden, both PHC and hospital supply and spatial access contribute over time to geographic variation in Finland when individual SEP and comorbidities were adjusted for.

Methods

The Finnish Care Register for Health Care provided hospitalizations for ACSCs (divided further into subgroups of acute, chronic, and vaccine-preventable causes) in 2011-2017. With 3-

SUBMITTER: Satokangas M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7899221 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature