title: Social differences in postponing a General Practitioner visit in Flanders, Belgium: which low-income patients are most at risk?
abstract: One of the main goals of primary care is providing equitable health-care, meaning equal access, equal treatment and equal outcomes of healthcare for all in equal need. Some studies show that patients from lower socioeconomic groups visit a GP more often, while other studies show that they are more likely to postpone a visit to a GP. In this study, we want to explore within the social group of low-income patients living in Flanders, Belgium, which patients have a higher risk of postponing a visit to a GP. A face-to-face questionnaire was administered among 606 low-income users of Public Social Services. The questionnaire consisted of questions on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, social networks, health and healthcare use. A multivariate logistic regression model was built to study the relationship between postponing or cancelling a GP visit which respondents thought they needed and variables on health, socio-demographic background. The multivariate regression indicates that depression, self-rated health and trust in the GP independently predict postponing a visit to a GP. Low-income people with a low trust in the GP, people with a poor self-rated health and people suffering from a severe depression are more likely to postpone or cancel a GP visit they thought they needed compared to other people on low incomes. This might indicate that the access to health-care for low-income people might be hindered by barriers which are not directly linked to the cost of the consultation.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice and Primary Healthcare, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Evelyn.Verlinde@ugent.be
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verlinde
authors.forename: Annelien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Poppe
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: DeSmet
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Maeseneer
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Audenhove
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Willems
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001530:Belgium; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011203:Poverty; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult