How a universal health care system responds to an aging population. Demographics, supply, and utilization in 1975 and 1983 in Manitoba, Canada.
Health care planners are concerned with projected increases in the numbers of elderly because of their consumption of costly nursing home- and hospital-based services. Using administrative data from the Manitoba health insurance system, this article examines how a health care system has responded to increased numbers of elderly by comparing how different age groups in the population used hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians in 1975 and 1983. Over this period, there was a marked increase in the numbers of elderly, combined with a decrease in the per capita availability of hospital and nursing home beds.
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008350:Manitoba; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013223:Statistics as Topic