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- Title
Usual source of care in preventive service use: a regular doctor versus a regular site.
- Authors
Xu, K. Tom
- Abstract
<bold>Objective: </bold>To compare the effects of having a regular doctor and having a regular site on five preventive services, controlling for the endogeneity of having a usual source of care.<bold>Data Source: </bold>The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey 1996 conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Center for Health Statistics.<bold>Study Design: </bold>Mammograms, pap smears, blood pressure checkups, cholesterol level checkups, and flu shots were examined. A modified behavioral model framework was presented, which controlled for the endogeneity of having a usual source of care. Based on this framework, a two-equation empirical model was established to predict the probabilities of having a regular doctor and having a regular site, and use of each type of preventive service.<bold>Principal Findings: </bold>Having a regular doctor was found to have a greater impact than having a regular site on discretional preventive services, such as blood pressure and cholesterol level checkups. No statistically significant differences were found between the effects a having a regular doctor and having a regular site on the use of flu shots, pap smears, and mammograms. Among the five preventive services, having a usual source of care had the greatest impact on cholesterol level checkups and pap smears.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Promoting a stable physician-patient relationship can improve patients' timely receipt of clinical prevention. For certain preventive services, having a regular doctor is more effective than having a regular site.
- Subjects
UNITED States; UTILIZATION of preventive health services
- Publication
Health Services Research, 2002, Vol 37, Issue 6, p1509
- ISSN
0017-9124
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/1475-6773.10524