Socioeconomic inequalities in health care utilization in Paraguay: Description of trends from 1999 to 2018.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Paraguay's health care system is characterized by segmented provision and low public spending, with limited coverage and asymmetries in terms of access and quality of care. The present study provides national estimates of income-related inequality in health care utilization and trends in the country over the past two decades.

Methods

Using data from the Paraguayan Permanent Household Survey, we estimated socioeconomic inequality in health care use during the period 1999-2018. We used poverty-to-income ratio as the socioeconomic stratifier and defined health care use as having reported a health problem and subsequent health care use in the last 90 days before interview. Inequality was summarized by rank- and level-based versions of the Concentration Index for binary

SUBMITTER: Capurro DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9277338 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature