title: Determining the use of health care services by obese inhabitants of Warsaw. A preliminary study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The excessive use of health care services by obese people constitutes a serious financial burden to all highly developed countries. As yet however, this has not been recognised to be a problem in Poland.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To provide a preliminary analysis of Warsaw inhabitants in their use of and quality of received health care by comparing obese subjects with those of normal weight.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study subjects were fifty three obese (BMI > 30) and one hundred eighty one normal weight (18.5 < BMI < 25) inhabitants of Warsaw, who had taken part in a study on social participation in health care reforms. The use of health care services covered: visits to public health care physicians, hospitalisation and visiting private physicians. Assessing health care quality was by evaluating overall the health care system and the family doctor as well as out-of-pocket treatment expenses and any difficulties in accessing physicians.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Obese subjects perceived their health to be significantly worse than those of normal weight and significantly more of them never attended private practice. Consultation with public health physicians was also frequently, but not significantly, higher in the former whilst hospital admissions were the same in both groups. Obese subjects gave considerably lower general assessments of the quality of the health care system and more often perceived their medical expenses as being very high, nevertheless, both these differences were statistically insignificant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The obtained findings have allowed us to formulate new recommendations for future research. These will examine various uses of health care services by the obese, i.e. family doctors and other specialists of public primary health care, out-patient clinic physicians and private physicians (according to their defined specialisations), hospitals according to location and rehabilitation centres. Account will be taken of visiting frequency, admission waiting time for physicians, length of visits, amounts of prescribed medication, out-of-pocket payment for treatment and medication, frequency of surgical interventions, satisfaction with given treatments and physician attitudes towards obese patients. Moreover, the socioeconomic status of the obese will be investigated as a potential obstacle to using health care services.
authors: Piotr
authors: P
authors: Supranowicz
authors: Mirosław Jan
authors: MJ
authors: Wysocki
authors: Justyna
authors: J
authors: Car
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Debska
authors: Anita
authors: A
authors: Gebska-Kuczerowska
authors: Lucyna
authors: L
authors: Gromulska
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003256:Community Participation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D011044:Poland; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors