Measuring Health Services Utilization in Ethnic Populations: Ethnicity and Choice of Frameworks.
Health services utilization (HSU) is an important health outcome indicator, a surrogate measure of access to healthcare, that influences the outcomes of health status and consumer satisfaction, is a surrogate measure of access to healthcare. To most healthcare providers, understanding patterns of HSU is important for health system resource planning and allocation. In studies of HSU, the ethnicity variable is key especially in multicultural societies such as Canada where a significant proportion of the population consists of visible minorities.
This article is a review of HSU frameworks to inform a survey of hard-to-reach populations in a Canadian province. It is intended to set the stage for a comprehensive systematic literature review
of models of access to care and models of health system performance that address access as a criterion. To achieve this, I used selected published research to examine frameworks for access
to medical care and HSU. I then describe their characteristics and appropriateness for health services research, and discuss the rationale for choosing a particular framework. Finally, I describe
ethnicity as a variable in the framework for HSU and conclude with a summary response and limitations of this review.
To improve the understanding of the concept of accessibility, Frenk proposed new definitions, referring to access – as the ability of a person to utilize healthcare given a need and/or desire to obtain it, while accessibility is the degree to which a person needing and seeking care actually receives care. Despite these alternative definitions, measures of ‘ability to utilize’ ‘need and/or desire to obtain’ care remain unclear.
Public Health Open J. 2017; 2(2): 53-58. doi: 10.17140/PHOJ-2-121
