title: Predictors of participation in preventive health examinations in Austria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Preventive health check-ups in Austria are offered free of charge to all insured adults (98% of the population) and focus on early detection of chronic diseases, primary prevention, and health counseling. The study aims to explore predictors of compliance with the recommended interval of preventive health check-up performance.
  
  
  METHODS
  Source of data was the Austrian Health Interview Survey 2006/07 (15,474 subjects). Participation in a preventive health examination during the last three years was used as dependent variable. Socio-demographic and health-related characteristics were used as independent variables in a multivariate logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that 41.6% of men and 41.8% of women had attended a preventive health check-up within the last three years. In multivariate analysis, subjects ≥ 40 years, with higher education, higher income or born in Austria were significantly more likely to attend a preventive health check-up. Furthermore, a chronic disease was associated with a higher attendance rate (OR: 1.21; CI: 1.07-1.36 in men; OR: 1.19; CI: 1.06-1.33 in women).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attendance rates for health check-ups in the general Austrian population are comparatively high but not equally distributed among subgroups. Health check-ups must increase among people at a young age, with a lower socio-economic status, migration background and in good health.
authors.affiliation: Department for Internal Medicine, Division of Angiology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna, Austria. sophie.ziegler@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brunner-Ziegler
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rieder
authors.forename: Katharina Viktoria
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Stein
authors.forename: Renate
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koppensteiner
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Thomas Ernst
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Dorner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001317:Austria; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014171:Transients and Migrants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult