title: When do people visit a doctor?
abstract: We examine the length of time between when an individual feels sick and when he/she visits a doctor using survival analysis to capture the dynamic aspects of this behavior. If the disease is light, actions such as OTC medicine or sick leave are alternatives to visiting a clinic or a hospital immediately. The timing of the visit depends only the person's decision, not on a doctor's, so we can limit discussion to the effect of ex-post moral hazard excluding physician induced demand. Participants were asked to keep a log of illness-related behavior such as dates of episodes, subjective symptoms, sick leaves, and medical treatment at hospitals. Neither the copayment rate nor access cost had a significant effect on the behavior of visiting a doctor, whereas available alternatives delay the timing of a visiting. Severe symptoms and fever hastened the time. The results suggest that the traditional argument about ex-post moral hazard is somewhat misleading.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
authors.forename: Shun-ichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bessho
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ohkusa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017059:Models, Econometric; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010548:Personal Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors