title: Health-care use by rheumatoid arthritis patients compared with non-arthritic subjects.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the use of health-care by rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and non-arthritic subjects (NA) and to look for factors determining their patterns of health-care use.
  
  
  METHODS
  A multicentre cohort of 223 RA and 446 NA subjects matched for age, gender, period of data collection and residence were questioned about their use of health-care services. Patterns of health-care use were identified by principal components analysis. Factors determining the use of health-care services were assessed by multiple linear and logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportions of RA subjects who declared having had at least one contact with the health-care system in the previous 12 months and in the previous 4 weeks were higher than those for NA subjects for all health and social professionals except dentists and homeopaths. Types of health-care use explored were hospital, prescribed, general ambulatory and specialized ambulatory care. Factors determining health-care use were disease status, administrative area, employment status and age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RA subjects use health-care services more widely than NA subjects. Variation in recourse behaviour is related to differences within administrative areas.
authors.affiliation: EA 3444 and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nancy, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Girard
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guillemin
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Novella
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Valckenaere
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Krzanowska
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vitry
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vittecoq
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Eschard
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Le Loët
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000628:therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006304:Health Status; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents